DIA space, Michigan Central arts among $23M in Knight grantees

BY SHERRI WELCH

Several digital arts projects in the works for Detroit and a few new ones will get a boost from $23 million in grants from the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

ey’ll fund a new arts and technology strategy with world-class art for the developing Michigan Central District in the city’s Corktown neighborhood; a new outdoor performance space near the Detroit Institute of Arts and expanded Wi-Fi in the city’s Cultural Center, and a new mobile media laboratory for artists in Detroit’s North End neighborhood.

R&D lab, which will provide cross-disciplinary cohorts of arts leaders in Detroit with training and technical resources.

 Michigan Central, a 30-acre innovation district in Detroit’s Corktown Neighborhood: $2 million to develop an art and technology program around the redeveloped Michigan Central Station.

 Midtown Detroit Inc.: $2 million to expand the public’s access to free and secure Wi-Fi available at its Cultural Center and will design and pilot a new outdoor performance space on the Detroit Institute of Arts campus.

more than 4 billion eggs are produced in the state annually or about 4 percent of the national production — that’s invested heavily into cage-free operations, a requirement by the end of 2024 from regulators in the state.

“ e farms that have been a ected by avian in uenza are su ering, but that production (to keep up with demand) now on the market has to be met by other companies,” said Nancy Barr, executive director of Michigan Allied Poultry Industries, the trade association for Michigan egg, chicken and turkey farmers. “High egg prices helps keep producers producing. No one wants avian u to happen to any of their colleagues and everyone is on high alert, but Michigan farmers have done an amazing job protecting their ocks and that’s presented opportunity.” e success of Michigan’s laying hen industry — which is controlled by eight companies, including Saranac-based Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch Inc., which is the 10th-largest egg producer in the U.S. and supplies every McDonald’s east of the Mississippi River — stems from watching previous outbreaks and investing in biosecurity, said Ernie Birchmeier, livestock and dairy specialist for the Michigan Farm Bureau.

More than 58 million chickens have died or been culled during the current avian u outbreak, which began roughly a year ago, in 47 states. Michigan, the sixth-largest egg producing state in the U.S. with a $1.4 billion economic impact, isn’t one of those states and hasn’t recorded a single outbreak among its roughly 15 million hens on 17 farms.

For context on the severity of the avian u outbreak, it’s killed, forced the culling of, about 10 percent of the U.S. laying hen population in the past 12 months. e COVID-19 outbreak has killed less than 0.3 percent of the U.S. population in the last roughly three years. For birds, this is a far worse pandemic and a direct result in the shock to egg prices. Dead hens don’t lay eggs.

“We annually deal with avian in uenza during the migration process in the fall and spring. When wild birds commingle with farm birds, no di erent than when children go to school, sickness spreads,” Birchmeier said.

“Our farmers have learned and put in very strict biosecurity measures. You can’t just walk onto a farm and visit the birds. ere’s tight biosecurity protocols that involves washing and covering of clothes and documenting where you’ve been. at even goes for the vehicles that come onto the farms with washing and disinfecting.” e last major outbreak, between December 2014 and June 2015, killed more than 50 million birds and hammered Michigan’s turkey farmers. And if avian u is found in a commercial ock, the entire ock has to be euthanized under U.S. Department of Agriculture rules. e family-owned Herbruck’s started a $76 million investment to expand operations at its farms years ago, much of which was to accommodate the cage-free demand of its customers, like McDonald’s, Kroger, Meijer and others. e current high egg prices help the farms recoup some of that investment, Jones said.

Much of those new biosecurity measures are coming alongside expansion investments to comply with industry demand, and government regulations, on cage-free birds, said Travis Jones, CEO of agriculturalnancial services rm GreenStone Farm Credit Services.

Because of those investments, Michigan has seen a 50 percent rise in farmed laying hens since 1995, according to GreenStone. Almost every hen barn in the state is being, or has been, renovated.

“Many of our farmers have seen cycles like this before,” Jones said. “ e upside is limited because most of these farms have long-term customer contracts that limits the upside and downside of the market. But certainly, farmers are bene ting from higher prices, but it’s a controlled bene t. It does provide more equity and cash to continue these investments as they stick to the gameplan.”

Egg prices are expected to come back down, eventually, and with it the cyclical nature of the industry swings the other way. But with the investments and protections put in place, Michigan’s egg industry may continue to advance — as long as its barns stay clear of disease.

Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh e latest round of grants will support the digital future of the arts in Detroit over the next ve years, bene ting 10 local arts organizations that have used technology to connect people to place and to each other, propelling those efforts and spurring new use of technology in the creation, dissemination and experience of art, the foundation said. ey mark Knight’s fourth round of support for Detroit arts organizations since 2005 and bring its total support for the local arts sector to $50.75 million.

“Art institutions have a unique role in telling our stories, re ecting our cultures and helping us understand the world around us,” Knight Vice President Victoria Rogers, vice president of arts at Knight Foundation, said in a release.

“In Detroit, the e ective application of technology among both long-standing and emerging artists and art organizations will be particularly salient. We are proud that our new initiative is supporting organizations and artists who are ensuring Detroit remains a vibrant and creative center of informed and engaged communities.”

Several grantees will use the funding to launch new technology-based initiatives. ey include:

 Bulk Space: $750,000 to create the Bulk Media Lab, a mobile media laboratory with portable tools and resources made available to artists in Detroit’s North End.

 CultureSource: $1 million to increase the technical capacity and understanding of Detroit’s arts leaders through the creation and operation of the CultureSource ey include: the Arab-American National Museum with a $1 million grant, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History with a $3 million grant and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Opera with grants of $2 million each. e Knight Foundation makes grants aimed at fostering informed and engaged communities, directly in Detroit and seven other eight cities where the Knight brothers owned and operated newspapers. Donor-advised funds it has established in 18 other U.S. cities also provide support in those areas.

 Motown Museum: $4.5 million to create a “Digital Jukebox,” which will make key archival content and physical materials available online and on-site.

 Sphinx Organization: $1.25 million to foster increased participation of BIPOC performing artists in classical music by expanding the digital reach of its programming and SphinxConnect, the largest convening dedicated to diversity and inclusion in classical music.

Four grantees will use their grants for strategic planning, digital content creation, marketing and investment in tech-related personnel to expand and increase accessibility of their digital presences.

Knight said it will provide an additional $3.5 million to fellowship, commissioning and capacity-building programs to support individual artists and arts organizations employing technology to transform their work, with those programs launching in 2023 and 2024.

Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch