Art is for Everyone Picks Ferndale for HQ
(C.Proxmire, Ferndale 115 News, July 31, 2012)
23233 Woodward has a new, but temporary, tenant. The building is the Oakland County Headquarters for the Art is for Everyone Campaign, whose goal is to encourage support of the Aug. 7th ballot proposal to provide taxpayer support for the Detroit Institute of Arts. The millage will cost the owner of a $150,000 home about $15 a year, and the money will be used to operate the museum and its programming.
There are campaign headquarters in each of the counties that has the Art is for Everyone millage on their ballots – Wayne, Oakland and Macomb.
Brianna Fritz, who lived in Ferndale until she moved to Corktown a few months ago, is the Oakland County Organizer. Her boss is another Ferndale person, Oakland County Coordinator for Art is for Everyone Jason Ellenberg.
Fritz said she loves working on the eight-week campaign so far. “For the most part people have been really supportive, and it’s fun working on an issue based campaign.
So far there have been over 4,500 phone calls made from the Ferndale office alone.
“Not robo-calls,” Fritz said. “We’ve got volunteers that come in, and over the next week there will be different groups every evening.”
“Having volunteers is better because they can listen to the people they call and answer any questions.”
The Ferndale office has also sold over 1,000 yard signs at $5 a pop. Former City Councilperson Kate Baker jumped in to help the campaign sell yard signs, raising $415 for the campaign.
“I sold 83 signs – it got a bit crazy there for a minute when it seemed like everyone I knew in Ferndale and PR wanted one,” Baker said. “I put out a call on my FB page asking if anyone wanted a sign, as I was going to try to find out how to get one. 60+ people and 83 signs later, the team in the Ferndale Art is For Everyone office knows me by name!”
Baker is a fundraiser for arts nonprofits, having worke
d with the Henry Ford and the Wayne State University Press for nearly ten years. “I’m passionate about the arts and their important role in keeping cities vibrant, educated, cool places to live and work. This election is vital to keeping one of Midtown Detroit’s major anchor institutions open. I can’t imagine Midtown without the DIA.”
She said she is proud that the campaign chose her hometown as their headquarters.
Fritz is excited too. “We opened the office a month ago, and Ferndale is a really central location for the arts. We’ve got a lot of supporters here and we’re in the center of a community full of art,” she said.
For more information about Art is For Everyone and the ballot proposal for Aug. 7, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KeepTheDIA.
Read the Millage Facts at http://oaklandcounty115.com/2012/07/23/dia-millage-facts-vote-is-aug-7/.
And check out other Ferndale One~Fifteen News coverage at….
http://oaklandcounty115.com/2012/06/01/oakland-countyvoters-to-decide-on-dia-support/
http://oaklandcounty115.com/2012/06/27/inside-out-dia-artwork-comes-to-ferndale/
