Planning for Creative Reuse
WITH CHARLES H. WRIGHT MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY and COLLEGE FOR CREATIVE STUDIES
Planning and strategy for d.Tree Studio, a community-centered woodworking and storytelling class.d.Tree Studio is a collaboration between the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the College for Creative Studies. The two institutions are located adjacent to one another in Detroit’s Cultural Center. This initiative explores how reclaimed urban wood can be used in design and education, fostering resourcefulness, storytelling, and community engagement. The program originated with the removal of three Zelkova trees from the Wright Museum’s campus and evolved into a semester-long course at College for Creative Studies, where students researched, designed, and crafted artifacts from the salvaged wood while engaging with community experts.
The Work Department supported the planning and strategy for d.Tree Studio, ensuring project alignment and feasibility between two partner institutions who had not previously collaborated in this way.
We began by leading a planning retreat with partner institutions and the community to establish shared goals, discuss the course syllabus, and outline student engagement strategies. Together, we outlined the role of community experts, defined project success, and identified key social and environmental themes for students to explore in their course work. Key decisions included integrating cultural narratives into the course, guidelines for student participation, and the significance of material history in the project.
Next we developed a detailed roadmap specifying the timeline, course objectives, strategies to recruit students to the course, and methods for integrating expert perspectives into the curriculum. The plan also outlined how a proposed symposium and exhibition components could extend engagement beyond the classroom.
Following our planning support, D.Tree Studio launched as a semester-long course at the College for Creative Studies, engaging students in woodworking, cultural inquiry, and material history. The project has extended its impact beyond the classroom through a public symposium (“Treeposium”), exhibitions at the Wright Museum, and other ongoing educational resources.
Learn more about d.Tree Studio here.