Can art save the world? Perhaps. But it certainly can bring a community together and encourage reading.
The introduction of a sculpture at Kiwanis #1 Park has brought an eastside Detroit community together, rejuvenated the park and created an outdoor library.
The project is a partnership among the Mount Elliott Business and Community Association (MEBCA), the College for Creative Studies’ community+public arts: DETROIT, the Eastside Community Network (ECN), other area non-profits, residents and stakeholders. ECN galvanized the community to help with the planning.
The group met at Gleaners Food Bank and more often the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, which provided food for the meeting. Together the partnership created the Kiwanis Park Reading Room, an open-air sculpture installation around a small plaza with benches and a free, outdoor library.
The theme of the plaza is centralized around literacy and incorporates the concept of the neighborhood lending libraries spotted around Detroit. The focal point is a sandstone sculpture by Detroit artist Larry Halbert, who was voted on by the community to create the art.
His work, Kiwanis Park Reading Room, sits at the end of a walkway as an entry into the park with native stone benches and three, ten-foot carved stone heads arranged around a central plaza. The three sandstone sculptures represent a family of faces – male, female, and child – meant to last generations, humanize the landscape, and provide a place for the people to rest and meet.
The community’s work did not end with the mental work. Volunteers got their hands dirty as they mixed cement, cleaned up trash, and even helped Halbert with the carving. He made sure to make the times he would be there clear to the community so he could engage them.
He was incredibly involved in what turned out to be a year-and-a-half-long project that ends on Saturday, June 10 with a dedication ceremony.
The artist attended most of the meetings interacting and listening to the community about their needs and desires for the project. The interaction was “magical in the room,” says Orlando Bailey, director of community partnerships for ECN.
“Larry came to every single community meeting,” says Bailey when describing Halbert’s relationship with the project, “I think it was a rewarding and fun to lend his expertise.”
Art only began the process. The community decided to create not only an area to sit and gather, but to have an outdoor library, the Kiwanis Park Reading Room. The desire is specifically to help grow kids’ literacy skills and share tales of the city and, specifically, the neighborhood.
While a reading room was just one of the ideas suggested, it is certainly one that was needed. With libraries struggling and the nearest library, the Elmwood Detroit Public Library on Chene, not close enough, ECN and the community believed young people needed a place to develop better literacy skills.
The Elmwood branch has donated books for the project as have residents.
So far the Detroit Public Library (DPL) is not directly connected to the park. However, there is an attempt to bring it in as a partner in the future.
The Kiwanis Club of Detroit provided information on Kiwanis #1 and its history, so the kids can be fully versed in the park’s legacy. “The whole point is living through it, but I think it is rich, especially in the community,” says Bailey.
The all-but-forgotten park at 6531 Kercheval was created in partnership with the first active Kiwanis club in the nation. When it fell into disuse, the Detroit Recreation Department designated it a Community Open Spaces park, which made it ineligible for capital improvement or regular maintenance. Now the community and its partners have made it a place to be again.
There will be no issue with repairs in the foreseeable future. There has been much cooperation between the neighborhood leaders and the City of Detroit Parks and Recreation Department. With this, and donations from the Kresge and Erb Foundations, which totaled $200,000, its upkeep, and improvements are covered for the next 10 years, says Bailey.
Meetings have begun between the community and the Recreation Department to plan for the park’s re-development.
The Kiwanis Park Reading Room will be officially dedicated on Saturday June, 10. The DPL’s book mobile will there, and there will also be a book give-away, performances to promote literacy and storytelling, music, food, arts and crafts, and other children’s activities.
“It is testament to the power of a community that has come together,” Bailey says. “It is certainly proof that Detroit has plenty of people who care and stays true to the city’s tradition of working for a better world.”
Photos by Julianne Lindsey
Art rocks. Outdoor park sculpture encourages reading skills on Detroit’s eastside added by M Lapham on
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