Light Up Livernois: Christmas Tree Lighting
Shop Local. Shop Livernois.
The Avenue of Fashion launched “Home for the Holidays” on November 26, 2013. The four-week holiday event features and promotes new and existing small businesses on Livernois Ave. The intent is to encourage Detroiters to shop locally for the holiday season. Special programming and promotional sale opportunities were prearranged to ensure an enjoyable shopping experience and boost visibility for many new businesses started through the project.
The kick-off event, “Light Up Livernois: Holiday Edition”, featured a Christmas tree lighting and art installation from the Flint Public Art Project at Hunters Supper Club. ArtPlace support has enabled programming, arts and temporary uses to engage residents in the redevelopment process with Hunter’s Supper Club, which will begin major construction in early 2014.
Sarah Pavelko of Voigt's Soda House
Voigt’s Soda House, an old-fashioned soda shop, opened this December on Livernois Ave. Billy Shuman, along with co-owner and wife, Sarah Pavelko, won first place in the TechTown Retail Bootcamp Showcase in November, which got them one month rent-free inside of the Livernois Community Storefront. Gearing up for the bus tour, Voigt’s Soda House, along with other new and existing businesses on the Avenue, will be featured as a holiday shopping destination along the “Buy Detroit: Independent Shopping Excursion" hosted by The Detroit Bus Company on December 14th and 15th. The tour highlights local retailers and escorts those looking to buy local to those destinations. Local shopping destinations include Eastern Market, Midtown, and our very own, Livernois “Avenue of Fashion”.
Evaluation in Progress
An evaluation of the Art + Retail on the Ave project is underway with help from Mosaic Urban Partners, based in Washington, DC. The assessment includes interviews, surveys, and site visits that focus on the process and best practices from Detroit and around the country. The evaluation is informing the program and process design that will be featured in a guidebook that will be publicly available by Spring 2014. The Guidebook is designed for a broad audience of entrepreneurs, artists, community organizations, and building owners who all have the same common goal: activating vacant space.
http://www.eatitdetroit.com/2013/12/eid-feature-voigts-soda-house-is-open.html
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9626838
Photos from the “Light Up Livernois” Holiday event can be found on Facebook.com/RevolveDetroit