Detroit Creative Placemaking

Starting in 2025 with Detroit Month of Design, this is a two-year health-focused project to reimagine Corktown, Detroit, as a living gallery of survival, resilience, and hope.

Donate to This Activation

Photographer:
Leandro Lara

Artist:
Jamari Taylor

Creating Lasting Community Connection & Change

Lions & Rabbits is partnering with the American Cancer Society (ACS), Detroit Month of Design, Black Women’s Voices, and more to ignite creative placemaking. We’re taking a walk that already brings thousands together and cultivating a physical environment that inspires and unites the community it serves.

The results:

  • Corktown gets lasting public art that changes how the neighborhood feels. 

  • The American Cancer Society gets a walk route that embodies its mission. 

  • Detroit gets proof that we can talk about hard things in public spaces. 

  • Everyone who participates becomes part of making difficult truths more visible.

STILL HERE: unfolds across multiple participatory components that work together as a cohesive environment.

  • The Portrait Series: All 116 portraits are finalized, sealed, and permanently installed on site

  • The Floral Forest: A multi-phase streetscape installation featuring painted floral sculptures that cover the blighted elements, like poles and barricades

  • Signature Mural by Ivan Montoya: A large-scale mural created by the lead artist in partnership with a paid, mentored local youth understudy, supporting intergenerational learning and creative pipelines

  • 66 Additional Planters Lining Michigan St: Florals native to the region maintained by Brightside Greening Collective

  • Community Paint-by-Numbers Building Wrap Mural: A large collaborative mural painted during public events and permanently placed in the neighborhood

  • Community-Created Clay Florals: Hundreds of hand-formed clay flowers made by participants during Detroit Month of Design, the ACS Taste of Hope Gala, and the Making Strides Walk, fired and preserved as sculptural elements within the installation

  • Permanent Audio Listening and Recording Stations: Interactive “community phones” that allow visitors to listen to recorded stories from survivors, families, caregivers, and residents, and to contribute new recordings over time

  • A Community Meal and Continued Activations: LRCFA is committed to hosting community meals at this location, including one for PPS International Placemaking Week, to welcome residents, survivors, creatives, and the broader community to share stories.

Cancer is present in every neighborhood.

Most often, it is experienced quietly—within families, workplaces, and routines that continue even as life changes.

STILL HERE: Rooted in Place, Emerging in Public is a two-year public art and storytelling initiative that brings those lived experiences into public space in a thoughtful, respectful way. Led by Lions & Rabbits Center for the Arts and rooted in Corktown, the project transforms a visible site at Michigan Avenue and 14th Street into permanent cultural infrastructure shaped by real people and real stories.

This project extends cancer awareness beyond a single event and embeds it into the everyday life of a neighborhood.

Why This Project Matters

National research, advocacy, and fundraising efforts are essential to advancing cancer cures. At the same time, people navigating cancer often do so without spaces that reflect what they are carrying—fear, resilience, uncertainty, and hope.

STILL HERE creates a place where those realities are acknowledged without spectacle. It centers lived experience and continuity, allowing awareness to exist not just as messaging, but as an environment.

STILL HERE is grounded in a simple belief:

Awareness is most meaningful when it stays close to the people it affects.

Rather than existing only on walk day, STILL HERE ensures that awareness remains visible throughout the year. This activation is intentionally participatory. People do not simply observe the work—they help create it.

Through painting, sculpting, recording, listening, and walking, community members shape both the physical site and the stories it holds. This approach recognizes participation itself as an act of care.

Supporting STILL HERE reflects a commitment to:

  • Community-rooted investment

  • Ethical, place-based storytelling

  • Artist support and youth mentorship

  • Public health awareness grounded in real lives

  • Long-term public benefit rather than temporary visibility

  • Accessible food distribution

Honoring Detroit Cancer Survivors

To raise awareness for the ACS's Voice of Black Women Campaign, 116 Detroit-based artists will create unique portraits honoring Corktown cancer survivors and their families, inspired by the work of local photographers.

PAINT A PORTRAIT

Transform everyday infrastructure into spaces for healing, storytelling, and pride.

Apply Today

BE PAINTED

Your voice (and face) are essential to fighting for a cure.

Apply today

UPCOMING EVENTS

International Placemaking Conference, June 2026

Interactive Art, Portraits, and Mural Installation, Spring, 2026

Detroit Month of Design, September, 2026

ACS Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, October 10, 2026

PREVIOUS EVENTS

Detroit Month of Design, September 2025

Eastern Market After Dark, September 18, 2025

ACS Taste of Hope Gala, September 29, 2025

ACS Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, October 11, 2025

Partner investment directly funds:

  • Fair compensation for local creatives, photographers, and youth mentors

  • Fabrication and installation of all visual and sculptural elements

  • Audio recording and listening infrastructure

  • Native plantings and streetscape development

  • Documentation, archiving, and maintenance planning

  • Community and creative gathering to support information sharing

Made Possible Through Collaboration

Join the Movement

Sponsorship Levels

Luminary Leader - $100k

  • Lead partner recognition on our website, annual report, and key communications

  • Exclusive Impact Spotlight (feature story in newsletter + social media)

  • Program association (e.g., named recognition on apprenticeship cohort, mural series, or annual impact report)

  • Recognition on donor wall/display (digital or physical)

  • Full-page thank-you recognition inside the project book

    ** One Left** Thank you, Knight Foundation

Collaborating Creator - $50k

  • Prominent logo/name placement on our website + annual donor communications

  • Dedicated social media highlight + sponsor spotlight in newsletter

  • Annual Impact Packet (PDF with photos, stories, and data points to share internally)

  • Early access to project announcements

  • Half-page thank-you recognition inside the project book

    ** Four Left**

Dream Weaver - $25k

  • Recognition on our website and in newsletters

  • Group spotlight in annual donor communication

  • Included in donor recognition displays

  • Personalized digital thank-you message from apprentices/artists

  • Quarter-page thank-you recognition inside the project book

    ** Four Left** Thank you, DMCU

Future Shaper - $10k

  • Name/logo in donor roll on website and annual report

  • Mention in group social media + newsletter acknowledgments

  • Advance invitations to public project updates

    ** Unlimited**

Audio Ally - $5k

  • Recognition on the website donor page

  • Thank-you mention in one newsletter + social post

    ** Unlimited** Thank you, CultureSource & Steelcase

À La Carte Options

  • Artist Materials Sponsor – supplies for mural & public art projects

  • Portrait Panel Sponsor – sponsor an individual tribute panel

  • Phone Installation Sponsor – support interactive storytelling stations

  • Lighting Sponsor – exterior architectural or installation lighting

  • Clay Floral Sponsor – support creative sculpting activations

  • Traveling Booth Sponsor – supports multi-site installation & mobility

Want to get your company or organization involved?

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