project leader
Eno L with Make Art Work/Detroit .
location
All across city neighborhoods
(Billboard messages will be installed across all city neighborhoods)
latest update rss
No updates yet.

the project

This is a renewed call for donations to place a public service announcement on 14 ground-level billboards across the city of Detroit (design attached). This project revision is offered as respectful public call to never forget loved ones we have needlessly lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In Detroit, the social/economic divide is real. You can see the legacy of racism in our mortality data. In Michigan, African-Americans have suffered 40 percent of all deaths from Covid-19 yet make up only about 14 percent of the population.

This new billboard design displays portraits of Detroiters -- only a fraction of the family, friends and neighbors in the city we have lost during the pandemic. We greive. We remember. We call for continued social distancing.

the steps

Over the past few weeks this revised billboard design was assembled from saved obituary photos. Displayed is a small crosssection of family members and friends we have lost. For the past 30 days we have been collecting photos from families and news reports. In the middle of May there were 1,257 Covid-19 deaths in Detroit. On June 20, the State of Michigan reported a total is 1,517 City of Detroit residents have died from the virus or complications related to it.

The numbers keep going up. Even though virus infections are not now surging in Detroit, people continue to catch the virus and die in hospital. Lamenting loss of loved ones is an important expression of our shared humanity. Pausing to grieve is essential for mental health. It continues to be important to mask up and keep social distance.

why we're doing it

Having not met our initial fundrasing goal, this renwed call for donations is designed to accomplish two things:

1. Offer public mourning sites in the neighborhoods for those who have died. Shared grieveing is important therapy for community healing. Before we can create a future, we must come together in mourning, united across our differences to recognize and mourn every life lost. It's what makes us human.

2. Share an up-to-date count of lives lost as a reminder that safe social distancing remains important to stop a second-wave spread of the virus.

Our initail project, launched in April, 2020 was desgined as an urgent call on the street for Detroiters to heed the shelter in place order as the virus was spreading. By the beginning of May we had reached a third of our funding necessary to rent billboards. Sadly, no billboards were purchased because by late April we were already too late to help slow the surge of virus infection.  Many Detroiters died alone in hospital without opportunity for loved ones to properly mourn the loss. As the infection rate flattened by the end of May the shelter-in-place order was lifted. Our urgent message became irrelevant to help flatten the rate of infection. 

 

budget

Disbursed budget 12.17.21:

These funds will be used as part of the expansion of Walter Bailey's Art Forest. We will be incorporating visual remembrance to be determined by family and friends from the neighborhood, to memorialize those who have been lost to the pandemic. Concept visualization, drawing, design and painting classes for children and adults at the Farwell Neighborhood Center will be part of the project. Two additional art boards will honor those we remember.



TOTAL RAISED = $2,128.42
ioby Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5%) N/A
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $46.43
TOTAL TO DISBURSE= $2,081.99

Original budget: 

(1) Junior Poster Billboard (11.5' x 5') Rental fee: $160 + $50 Printing and Process = $210 per billboardOriginal:

(14) billboards at $210 = $2,940

Software rental for design: $124

Art usage fee from vendor: $50




PROJECT FUNDING NEEDED = $3,114 $3,114
ioby Platform Fee Waived 35
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $96 $97
TOTAL TO RAISE = $3,210 $3,246

updates

Sorry, but this project doesn't have any updates yet.

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

donors

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Stefanie C.
  • Charles D.
  • jake the noise
  • Rebekah M.
  • Olivia A.
  • Wesley K.
  • OG
  • Jack D.