By Justina Giglio

Yvette Rock, the executive director and founder of Live Coal – a nonprofit that fosters artistic growth through visual arts education and community-rooted programs – is charting new opportunities in her youth artist program: The RED.

The RED is a children’s art museum that operates out of the Piety Hill neighborhood. Rock said she doesn’t simply display “cute pictures” that young Detroiters create. Instead, her programs have young artists explore their art practice on a deeper level by uplifting their voices to bring the community in to celebrate and purchase their work – just like professional artists. 

This is possible in part due to funding from initiatives like Seed & Bloom: Detroit, which has given The RED the capacity to run on a consistent basis. Seed & Bloom supports Detroit-based artists in turning their artistic practices into sustainable businesses and is a partner of The Kresge Foundation and The Gilbert Family Foundation. 

Rock said that Seed and Bloom gave The RED “the boost and fuel to really take our programs to the next step.”

Before Live Coal was founded, Rock ran kids’ art programs on and off until the space briefly closed during the pandemic. 

“Being able to physically reopen for programming last July breathed new life and new opportunities into the space,” Rock said.

Now, Rock wants to transition into more intensive art programming through a Youth Artist-in-Residence Program. She wants to invite high school students with a passion for art to learn the next steps of becoming a professional artist. Much like adult Artist in Residencies, the youths will have an exhibition at the end of the program.

One of Rock’s goals is to pay students through a stipend, scholarship or monetary reward so they can invest in their future career.

“Youth and families need to see that making art is part of the economic driver of our world,” she said, “Artists deserve to get paid for the work they do and the contributions they make to society.” 

Rock believes that the arts are one of the more accessible ways for people to process their lives and the world around them. Accessibility matters, Rock says, because it gives people multiple avenues to connect and relate to each other, which can transform a community. 

Seed & Bloom: Detroit Program funding has also impacted Live Coal’s Detroit rePatched program – an art-infused green space and art house in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood – by helping with general capacity and keeping the space operational, but Rock has been focused on re-envisioning The RED this summer.

“This summer was the start of a lot of pilot projects,” Rock explained, “I think it really captured where I want to go with a more intensive kids’ art program.”

The RED is holding a Summer Youth Art Exhibition from 3 to 7 p.m., Friday, August 15 at The RED, 80 Clairmount, Detroit.

Justina Giglio is a Summer 2025 intern in the External Affairs & Communications department at The Kresge Foundation.