Detroit leaders visit Hazelwood with Artist Edith Abeyta of Arts Excursions Unlimited.

Jeanette Pierce sported a Detroit necklace and earrings with her home area code of 313 as she toured Pittsburgh’s many attractions. 

The President of City Institute, a nonprofit that promotes Detroit, its assets and history, was impressed at every turn — from Arts Landing in Downtown to the New Granada Theater in the Hill District to Carnegie University’s Robotics Innovation Center at Hazelwood Green. 

“We have some post-industrial sites but to have 178 acres with events, robotics, advanced manufacturing is just unbelievable stuff,” said Pierce of Hazelwood Green and the technology, research, entertainment and community development that has emerged on the site of the former LTV Steel Works.  

Detroit leaders receive tour of CMU's Robotics Innovation Center in Hazelwood Green.

The Heinz Endowments partnered with City Institute to bring a group of 30 leaders from Detroit to Pittsburgh from July 14 to 16 as part of a learning exchange. A cross-section of individuals from government, higher education, business, nonprofits, philanthropic and cultural sectors, the Detroiters spent three days walking through Pittsburgh neighborhoods, touring arts and public spaces and learning about community development and startups. 

The Pittsburgh tour was the reciprocal visit after 17 Heinz Endowments grantees traveled four hours away to Detroit last September to tour some of the public spaces that had spurred economic development. In the Motor City, they walked along Detroit Riverfront, a five-mile path with bike trails, splash pools and a merry-go-round with native animals instead of horses. The Pittsburgh group also visited the 29-mile Joe Louis Greenway that connects parks and neighborhoods throughout the city, and District Detroit, which has restaurants, sports, hotels and shops in the heart of Downtown.  

Jasmin DeForrest, Managing Director of Arts & Culture for the Endowments and a Detroit native, came up with the idea of an exchange. “The goal is to get outside of your normal environment and experience another city together. It gives you a chance to see what’s possible, ask different questions and come back looking at your own work with a fresh perspective.” 

Spending time with leaders from another city forges new connections and enables people to learn from others’ experiences, which doesn’t have to end when the trip is over. “You now have someone you can pick up the phone and call, someone outside of your usual network who may have approached a similar challenge in a completely different way.” DeForrest said.  

Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership President & CEO Jeremy Waldrup shows Detroit leaders Market Square.

Mary McKinney Flaherty, Deputy Director of Economic Development for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, agreed. “It is wonderful to meet people who are compatriots,” she said, which included Marlo Rencher, Chief of Neighborhood Economic Development and Small Business, her counterpart in Detroit who, like her, started the position in January. McKinney Flaherty said she wouldn’t hesitate to call Rencher to get her input on an issue.  

“They are two cities that were a part of our industrial heritage as a nation, thriving cities that fell on hard times,” McKinney Flaherty said. “They are both in periods of pretty exciting re-creation, rejuvenation, reinvestment, reinvigoration… How can we learn from what Detroit is doing? How can we hear and see their reflections on what is happening here?” 

Naheed Huq, Manager of Economic and Community Vitality for the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments, described how she enjoyed walking through Pittsburgh’s varied neighborhoods.  

“There was a connection with both the foundation and higher education really getting into the neighborhoods and trying to get them into the revitalization,” she said, citing as an example the University of Pittsburgh moving its Community Engagement Center to the New Granada Theater in the Hill District.  

She was also inspired when Mayor Corey O’Connor talked about cold calling founders of startups weekly and getting their input on issues affecting the city. She thought that was a good idea she might take back with her to Detroit. 

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust President & CEO Kendra Whitlock Ingram gives Detroit leaders a tour of Arts Landing in Downtown Pittsburgh.

The three-day tour ended in Garfield with a panel discussion at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, whose state-of-the-art facility has prompted 60 glass artists from around the country to move to Pittsburgh. 

Heather McElwee, Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Glass Center, told the Detroit and Pittsburgh leaders about a collaboration with the Union Project, a ceramic center, and Contemporary Craft, which presents art created from a range of craft materials, in a recently announced expansion of the Pittsburgh IS Craft initiative. The effort, which includes nearly 20 partners, elevates Pittsburgh’s craft community and promotes the region as a national and international craft destination. Representatives from the three craft organizations explained to the group how they share resources and collectively brand their events and workshops. 

McElwee has a special affinity for Detroit because she learned glassmaking at the College for Creative Studies there. “I am hoping there can be some cross pollination, and folks can learn what works well across disciplines and organizations,” she said. 

In fact, the learning exchange has been so successful that leaders are already talking about the possibility of another Pittsburgh group visiting Detroit again in the future.

Photos by Joshua Franzos