Organized by artist and independent curator Mitch Cope, the MORE exhibition will open its doors for business at the Detroit Artists Market on March 4, 2005 and run through April 17.  There will be an opening reception to meet the artists and curator on March 4, 2005 from 6pm to 10pm.  MORE is a project that explores relationships between marketing strategies, artists and the potential for new ideas integrating commerce, culture and business.  MORE brings together artists, business owners, marketing experts, architects, graphic designers in collaboration with the Detroit Artists Market to provide an open arena for experimentation.  The exhibition will examine how artists use marketing in comparison to how businesses use marketing with the goal of creating a stronger working relationship between the business community and the arts community.

Curator Mitch Cope has previously curated shows at the Susanne Hilberry Gallery and Tangent Gallery, where he was the co-founder and former director.  He served as the local Detroit curator/coordinator for the Shrinking Cities Exhibition which opened September 2004 at the KW Contemporary Art Institute in Berlin, Germany.  His artwork has been shown throughout the Detroit area, as well as Chicago and Berlin. Mitch will be a part of the MORE exhibit, working daily within his custom-designed office space alongside artists Marc Horowitz and Jon Brumit, who will be diligently Manufacturing Real Excellence.

The MORE team is comprised of the experienced and efficient artists.  They have been asked to develop work that can best help the marketing efforts of MORE and the city in which it lives.  The creative consulting firm Sliv and Dulet Enterprises (Jon Brumit and Marc Horowitz) have been invited from their beautiful homes in San Francisco to help MORE in the marketing research and development effort located within a specially designed office/lobby by architecture firm Gensler.  Chido Johnson, an American-African, came all the way from Zimbabwe to join the MORE team.  He has miraculously created small figurines or “office jockeys” that, when placed at the entrance of an office or building, ward off bad business spirits.  Jeff Karolski, a native Hamtramck Polish-Italian, diagrams Detroit’s much entangled contemporary art scene exposing who’s who and who’s connected to whom and who shows where with whom, as well as a series of posters commissioned by the Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany illustrating five possible marketing strategies for Detroit’s infamous Devil’s Night phenomenon. Regina Reichert returns to the Midwest to develop a series of maps for visitors and newcomers to Detroit which compare the official Detroit area tourist attractions to the many unofficial sites and places of interest. Christian Tedeschi just walked in from New Jersey and will be marking his territory by designing a neon public sculpture for DAM in collaboration with Spectrum Neon Co. to enhance the visibility of the gallery and reenergize that area of Woodward.  Jeff Clark, promptly arriving on the scene from California, Yuen Hom, a native of China, and Michele Howley heralding from New York City, will develop a three-tiered advertising campaign to publicize the exhibition, the artists, events and projects encompassing MORE.

MORE projects will include: 

Featured Artists of the Month - Artists’ resumes along with photographs of their work environment will be displayed illustrating links between their personal artwork and their current business careers. Take the following two examples: Julie Russell Smith - Earned a BFA at the College for Creative Studies and an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Through an exhibition of her work at the Detroit Artists Market, was hired to by L-Vad Technology to make left ventricular assist devices and is currently the senior device fabrication specialist. Rebecca Duff -Also earned a BFA at CCS and while working as a secretary for a company was noticed as someone with special creative writing skills and now works for The Tribune Company in Chicago as an Employee Communications Consultant. 

 MORE Lobby/Office - Designed by the global architecture firm Gensler, visitors are invited into the MORE exhibition through the lobby/office where curator Mitch Cope and artists Marc Horowitz and Jon Brumit will be. The lobby will provide can function as meeting place or a resting spot for the gallery visitor.

 ...and introducing the Detroit Artists Market Slide Registry 

Regional artists are asked to submit slides in a prepared carousel which will then be set up for viewing on dual slide projectors.  In a special slide viewing room artists’ slides can then be viewed by gallery visitors. This marks the beginning of what we hope will become a permanent resource for curators, collectors and anyone else interested in seeing artists’ portfolios.

 Artists Website portfolios:

Sliv and Dulet Enterprises: www.slivanddulet.com

Marc Horowitz:  www.ineedtostopsoon.com

Jon Brumit: www.jonbrumit.com                                

Jeff Karolski:  www.woodcheese.com

Christian Tedeschi:  www.christiantedeschi.com

 For more information, please contact DAM at 313-832-8540 or via email at info@detroitartistsmarket.org.  Manufacturers of Real Excellence (MORE) runs from March 4 through April 17, 2005 with an opening reception to meet the artists and curator on March 4 from 6pm to 10pm.  The Detroit Artists Market is located in the Detroit Cultural Center at 4719 Woodward Avenue, Detroit MI  48201, three blocks south of The Detroit Institute of Arts, and one block east of Wayne State University.  Exhibitions are free and open to the public.  Free on the street parking available.    

The Detroit Artists Market is located in the Detroit Cultural Center at 4719 Woodward Avenue, Detroit MI 48201, three blocks south of The Detroit Institute of Arts, and one block east of Wayne State University. You may contact the Detroit Artists Market by phone at 313.832.8540 or via electronic mail at info@detroitartistsmarket.org. Exhibitions are free and open to the public. Free on the street parking available.