Detroit’s Library Street Collective Launches an Original Sketchbook Project to Feed Students—Literally and Figuratively

Every week, Vogue will be spotlighting the medical workers, teachers, and Good Samaritans who are giving back to those in need during the coronavirus crisis.

When Detroit-native Anthony Curis and his wife, JJ, first opened the Library Street Collective art gallery seven years ago, they had a clear intention: to engage the art world with their own local communities. Now, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re doubling down on their original mission and looking to their own creative platform for hope and inspiration.

About a week ago, they launched We All Rise, an arts initiative to feed students both literally and figuratively. Their program provides students throughout the Detroit Public School system with a packed lunch and an original sketchbook and coloring pencils. Now, the sketchbook is available online for everyone—in both physical and digital formats—with all proceeds from the physical format benefiting Detroit Public Schools food programs through the assistance of Forgotten Harvest and proceeds from the digital format benefitting Living Arts Detroit.

We All Rise includes original drawings by a number of well-known artists, including Virgil Abloh, Nina Chanel Abney, KAWS, and Nick Cave. Each page aims to spark imagination and creativity while providing hope to the community. “It’s an honor to lend an artistic idea that results in bettering people’s lives,” Off-White designer Abloh says. “That is the essential point of my practice within art and design.”

Curis spoke to Vogue about how he and his wife created a local project with a global outreach.

What is the situation right now in Detroit—both across the city and on the arts front?

In terms of what’s happening in the city of Detroit and Michigan as a whole, the city has been one of the hardest hit with the COVID-19 pandemic for a number of different reasons. So that’s really sad and unfortunate. In terms of the art scene in the city of Detroit…it’s always been a very resilient group of artists, creators, and creatives that are used to dealing with challenging situations. So there’s full confidence in the city’s creatives to really be able to step up and rebound from what’s happening.

Why did you initially organize this project and how did it come to be?

It started probably about a month and a half ago when we started seeing where things were going internationally, but also locally. A lot of school programs were starting to be postponed or delayed. We have some friends who are within the Detroit Public Schools organization and it was a conversation we realized pretty quickly where their school lunch programs were not only in dire straits, but were most likely going to be canceled. We tried to think of ways that we could not only help with that, but also, hopefully provide a source of inspiration and creativity for students.

Detroit Public Schools have been in the process of trying to climb out of decades of problems, and unfortunately, a lot of their creative arts programs were canceled several years ago. So for us, it was a two-part project where, not only does it provide basic needs for students who really depend on the lunch programs for potentially their only meal, but also inspires and creates opportunities for them to have some fun and color in alongside these artworks at a time like this.

How did you approach this project with the artists?

When we first decided on the idea of the sketchbook, we kind of put together a list of roughly 30 artists that we thought would be a really compelling group, a diverse group of Detroit based artists, national artists, and international artists. We just started reaching out one by one; some of the artists that are in the sketchbook we’ve had relationships with for years, some are newer relationships. One of the most fulfilling things was seeing the response from every single artist we reached out to—the positive response and the desire to really impact people, especially in our community in Detroit. I can’t say that enough. These are some artists that we’ve never really communicated with and to get a response within an hour of them saying, “Absolutely, please let me know what you need.” That says a lot.

Do you have plans to expand We All Rise?

As soon as we announced the project, we were inundated with emails and inquiries: “How do we get one of these books? I’d love one for my kids and I want to support the initiative and I’d love to support public schools.” It was overwhelming! I started having conversations with all the different artists that are involved in the project and we landed on this idea of scaling the project to global opportunities, and by participating, [people] were impacting a couple of Detroit-based nonprofits in a really positive way.

We first set it up where we would offer the physical sketchbooks for $12 and 100% of proceeds go to the food distribution programs for Detroit Public Schools (DPS), facilitated through our partner Forgotten Harvest.

And then we realized there are people all over the world that are in need—there are financial needs, but also similar needs to the students of wanting to keep people inspired and creatively interested. We decided to offer the e-book with a suggested donation and 100% of the proceeds go to a nonprofit called Living Arts Detroit. They’re an incredible organization in the city and they employ, I think, the highest number of artists and art teachers in the state, as well as organizing tons of amazing programs and after school programs. The minimum suggested donation was $5, but someone could donate $20 if they wanted to—and we’re seeing that too. We also took into account different financial situations, so we thought it would be appropriate to make it a suggested donation so people could still download the e-book for free. That way anyone and everyone can participate and there are varying levels of impact, which is great.

It’s incredible that everyone was so willing to participate in this movement. What has the general response to this project been like?

The original project with DPS is meal packages; we have served over 2,000 to date. And then in terms of a larger audience, at this point, since our launch five days ago, we’ve already raised over $25,000 for nonprofits and that’s growing. The beauty of this project is the more it gets out there, the more people that have eyes on it, [and] there are more opportunities to continue to raise proceeds and awareness for the art, the organizations, and the situation at hand.

What role do you feel art is playing during this crisis?

I think for a lot of people [they need] to be inspired. The arts can be a catalyst for inspiration and a way to keep people engaged and interested—that’s at least from our studio’s standpoint, and how we see our potential role in this right now. In a larger sense, I think the nice thing about it is that everybody has stepped into their own little niche in their own way to bring out some positive ideas. The fact that this comes in so many different forms I think is a great thing.

Do you have a personal favorite entry in the coloring book?

It’s such a broad, diverse group of artists. I have a six-year-old son and he has asked me the same question, and it’s difficult for me to respond. So maybe I’ll use his response: He’s super excited about the Nina Chanel Abney piece in the book. Nina is a good friend and an artist whom we’ve worked with for quite some time, and through those encounters he’s been able to get to know her and her work. So he’s really drawn to that one.

Originally Appeared on Vogue