Library Street Collective, the Detroit-based art space that handed out free sketchbooks and lunches to public school students in the early days of the pandemic, is moving into a new gallery in the Belt—a cultural hub of Downtown Detroit. The new space will be designed by the New York-based design firm Snarkitecture, whose team consists of nearly a dozen hybrid artists, architects, and designers, including Daniel Arsham, the recently tapped creative director of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The inaugural exhibition in the new flagship space will be a show of works by the painter Sam Friedman and will be curated by celebrated street artist Kaws.
The new space will be on the ground floor of Detroit’s historic L.B. King and Company’s building, and Snarkitecture’s design intervention will add a public art-element to the structure. “The architectural portal, sculpted into the original brick façade of the building, provides not only a window into the gallery but will become another important installation within the Belt, a formerly desolate alley that has been transformed into one of the most active pedestrian public spaces in Detroit,” says Anthony Curis, a co-founder of the gallery.
A rendering shows the view inside towards the front of gallery © Snarkitecture
“This new gallery marks an important second chapter for Library Street Collective and represents our commitment to the same downtown neighbourhood where we first started,” Curis adds. “We’re thrilled to be working again with Snarkitecture, who have designed a space that literally connects our work within the gallery to our public art initiatives in the city.”