About
the team
Cézanne Charles,
AXD 2019 Curator and Director
Cézanne Charles has more than 20 years of experience working at the executive and senior management level within the creative industries (nonprofit and for-profit) in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She is the co-founder and director of rootoftwo, a research and practice-driven hybrid design studio that engages in civic future-making, using design methods to facilitate people to imagine and shape collective visions of desirable futures that are more just, resilient, inclusive and adaptive.
For the past 11 years, Cézanne served as Director of Creative Industries at Creative Many, where she led the design and implementation of the company’s creative industries research. Here, Cézanne also designed and directed programs that provided the knowledge, funding, networks and advocacy needed to help empower the practices of artists, designers and makers within the state, with a core focus on Detroit.
Cézanne serves on the Stewardship Board for the UNESCO City of Design initiative, the Board of Directors of Allied Media Projects, the Downtown Detroit Partnership’s Creative Partnership Advisory Council, and the Zoning Advisory Group of the Detroit Planning Commission.
Dominique Campbell,
AXD Manager
Dominique Campbell is a multi-hyphenate artist, social entrepreneur, and cultural organizer who seamlessly blends the worlds of music, advocacy, and activism. Under her stage name, Nique Love Rhodes, she is a dynamic recording artist and performer who has quickly developed into one of the hottest music acts coming out of Detroit. As an entrepreneur, she recently launched Rise Up Higher, an initiative that uses music as a tool for social good and positive social change. She is also the co-founder of D.Cipher, a music mastermind collective dedicated to advancing the Detroit music economy through collaboration and partnerships. Under D.Cipher, she has been apart of a movement that has invested over $20k into Detroit’s independent music community. It is this experience as an independent artist and entrepreneur that has given her 13+ years of insight and knowledge of balancing creative practice with business, and how to leverage both for positive social impact. Through her company Inspired by NLR, she curates, produces, and manages events that infuse the arts into communities to advocate for and advance social justice initiatives.
AXD 2019
AXD 2019 is curated and managed by rootoftwo and powered by The Kresge Foundation. AXD 2019 is a city-wide, multi-disciplinary series featuring twenty-two newly commissioned exhibitions, performances and events developed by alumni Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Awardees immersed throughout Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.
AXD 2019, in part, serves as a celebration of the first decade of the Kresge Arts in Detroit initiative, which annually awards $25,000 to 18 artist fellows and $5,000 to two Gilda Award winners recognized for early-career risk-taking.
AXD 2019 is a successor to the biennial Art X festivals, originally produced by Midtown Detroit, Inc. - which presented new works by Kresge Artist Fellows primarily in venues in Midtown, Downtown and Eastern Market from 2011 to 2015.
The Kresge Foundation
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information visit kresge.org.
rootoftwo, LLC
rootoftwo, LLC is an award-winning research and practice-driven hybrid design studio, led by Cézanne Charles and John Marshall. Formed in 1998, their work engages in civic future-making, using design methods to facilitate people to imagine and shape collective visions of desirable futures that are more just, resilient, inclusive and adaptive. rootoftwo creates innovative tangible artifacts, spaces, experiences, events and strategies. For more information visit rootoftwo.com.