Mint is firmly rooted in Michigan, yet we expect to spread our wings and show our art in many states and countries. This year, we started down those paths, even as we stayed true to our work with creative youth artists and children from the Detroit area.
As we finish up this colorful but imperfect Success by the Numbers, we are reminded of something one of our visiting artists told our youth. “Don’t try to keep up with what’s trending. Make your own original artwork.” Mint did that abundantly this year, from our Sisters, Sisters show at MAC Galleries to the Gifts of Detroit at The Congregation and our Paint Detroit with Generosity exhibit that continues to shine through early March.
And as our 10th anniversary dawns, we are happy to again share some measures of our success for 2025, another year of records and firsts.
1 – Mintern Naima Begum designed our new Healthy Detroit coloring book, and developed new skills and so much more confidence during her weeks working with Mint. Hear her share the book and its inspiration in this video she created:
Mint Artists who learned about running an artist studio and practice with summer jobs placed with Detroit artists Hubert Massey and Mandisa Smith’s AKOMA Studios. It was our first time working in a fiber arts studio.
3 – sites for our first Community Service Day, at Live Coal Gallery ‘s Brightmoor space, Palmer Park and Clark Park Coalition. This gave our youth a chance to give back in green spaces and create some of their own community volunteer activities.
Mint Artists who worked on mosaics from Clark Park, our first year there.
Part of Mint’s Clark Park mosaics team work on our first mosaic bench, designed by the young artists. (Photo: Vickie Elmer)
Generosity paintings that still need a nonprofit recipient. Visit them in January or February at The Love Building and nominate a worthwhile local nonprofit organization.
45 – free arts and crafts sessions in Detroit parks. This is a record number, thanks to the support of the Gilbert Family Foundation, which allowed us to offer more in the autumn, and Pistons Neighbors, which has been our main summer crafts benefactor for several years.
750 is the approximate number of children and adults who joined Mint and other nonprofits in the Belle Isle Art Fair make and take tent. We created mermaids and little fish – and one big one, with creative flourishes by many of the fair’s professional artists.
$57,300
record dollars earned by our artists and Minterns in the Mint Creative Summer Jobs program. That is triple the amount earned just four years earlier.
103,000Â
The number of recycled bottle caps turned into panels by Mint and others for The Grand Dome. Mint Artists created about one-third of the panels. It was our first interstate artists collaboration, with lead artist Adrienne Outlaw, who will show the Dome for an Earth Day celebration in St. Louis.
If this list inspires you – seeing how much a small nonprofit, with total receipts of only around $125,000, can achieve and give to youth, to children, to Detroit – please make a donation to Mint Artists Guild or become a monthly giver.
Two Mint Artists work on their first panel for The Grand Dome, made mainly of recycled plastic bottle caps. (Photo: Vickie Elmer for Mint Artists Guild)
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