One of the things that I appreciate the most about being a fellow are the opportunities to attend events, often times for free, in the city. Recently the fellows were given the opportunity to attend Mozart’s Requiem performed by the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra. To be completely honest, the only determinable difference between the Youth orchestra and an adult orchestra performance was that the youth were shorter. That is to say, the performance was very impressive and the music was beautiful.
Before the show, we were given a special behind the scenes tour of the DSO building. The building is beautiful and It was amazing to see pictures of the space before it was bareheaded. Seeing it’s transformation caused me to wonder about so many other building in the city that were once beautiful and how they could become beautiful again.
The tour g
uides spoke of the recent efforts of the DSO to make performances more accessible to the average Detroiter. This was a concept that particularly struck my interest. I wondered how they had identified such barriers and what a sustainable solution would truly look like. Currently they offer package deals for ticket purchasing and live streaming of events for free. These solutions where created to address the financial disparity between the average Detroiter and the people who regularly attend shows. I find this solution very helpful and wonder what other ways to address this issue exist. If this question were presented to Challenge Detroit fellows in the form of a typical five week challenge it would be presented as a design question , “How might we create a DSO experience that will be relevant to the average Detroiter?”. Although I don’t have all the answers off hand I would point towards the design thinking method of “empathy” that would allow for the researchers to develop a DSO that reflects the community it resides in.
This event and others like it inspire me to keep exploring Detroit and enjoying all that this wonderful city has to offer. I’m looking forward to the next uniquely-Detroit experience. #LearnDetroit #EnjoyDetroit