Today kicks off the 16th annual Detroit Month of Design. 

Kiana Wenzell is the co-executive director of Design Core Detroit and the director of Detroit Month of Design.  She explains this year’s theme, “Design Moves the Future.”

“Whether you’re moving forward, moving backwards, or just dancing and moving your body and getting the energy moving, let’s put our ideas into motion if we want to move this city in this region forward,” she says. 

The event will feature contemporary designers, from 250 applications, and 100 events over 30 days.

“When you go to an exhibition, whether it’s an exhibition at Scarab Club or an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, it’s gonna be the work of practitioners that are doing things in our city today,” says Wenzell.

Wenzell says others can learn from Detroit’s progress. “As you face different social and economic ups and downs, what can you lean on that’s inherently within you, and what’s within your community, and I think Detroit’s always been great about that, even when the storylines weren’t saying that.”

Wenzell adds that the event works to build community and is always evolving.

“So even though this is our 16th year, the festival’s never the same because we’re not the same from year to year. The festival also helps to showcase the changing tapestry of our city. Detroit is is changing fast, not only downtown, but the commercial corridors,” she says.

In 2015, Detroit received the City of Design designation from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for creating art, which improves the quality of people’s lives. 

Detroit is the only City of Design to receive this designation in the U.S.