A Foundation of Support: Christina deRoos’s Work with Kresge Arts in Detroit

Christina deRoos, a driving force behind Kresge Arts in Detroit (KAID) for over a decade, recently stepped down as director of the program renowned for its robust, innovative, and steady support of individual artists. She leaves a legacy of increasing opportunities for artists and advancing equitable funding in Detroit. 

Since 2008, KAID has been a cornerstone of metro Detroit’s artistic community, investing in creatives across Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. Funded by The Kresge Foundation and administered by the College for Creative Studies, the program will have provided $10 million through unrestricted awards after the upcoming announcement of the 2025 Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Awards. 

“It’s hard to imagine Kresge Arts in Detroit without Christina deRoos at the helm. She has been far more than a collaborator…she has been a true catalyst. Christina has challenged us, inspired us, and fundamentally redefined what this program can mean to artists and to the city. Her imprint is indelible, and our gratitude is boundless.” -Rip Rapson, President and CEO, The Kresge Foundation

An accomplished visual artist, curator, and artist organizer, deRoos joined the program in 2013, hired by founding director Michelle Perron (currently director of the executive office for The Kresge Foundation). With a holistic and responsive approach to program design and administration, deRoos and KAID’s team of artists evolved the program in service of increasing artists’ compensation and creative freedom. 

Working closely with The Kresge Foundation, the program doubled its Eminent Artist Award, now $100,000 per year, and fellowship award amount, now $50,000 per year, and also increased the number of artists receiving awards each year. This culminated in the distribution of over $1,000,000 via 35 awards, marking KAID’s 15th program year and The Kresge Foundation’s Centennial year. 

Additionally, KAID’s “by artists, for artists” approach was instrumental in advocating for improved working conditions for artists. As a result, KAID received W.A.G.E. certification (Working Artists and the Greater Economy), the first model of its kind to establish a sector-wide minimum standard for compensation as well as a clear set of guidelines for the conditions under which artistic labor is contracted. 

In 2020, accepting The Kresge Foundation’s request to design and deliver professional development and career support opportunities for the Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients, deRoos led the KAID program to substantially expand its annual program operations. Event and exhibition opportunities, legal and accounting support, and more were developed and produced by a staff of artists in collaboration with KAID program alumni as well as local media outlets and service providers. Highlights include:

EXHIBITIONS:

• KAID facilitated two online exhibitions, Flash Your Lights (2024) and Counterspells (2025), on view now through July 10. 
• The 2024 in-person exhibition, Representation, curated by Wayne State University, presented the work of 17 Kresge Artist Fellows in honor of the program’s 15th anniversary.
  
• In 2019, a multidisciplinary exhibition, Parallel Visions, curated and produced by Wasserman Projects in honor of the KAID program’s 10th anniversary, featured 13 Kresge Eminent Artists, Kresge Artist Fellows, and Gilda Award recipients drawn from the 2008 – 2018 artist cohorts.

FILM SERIES

• From 2017 – 2025, the award-winning KAID film series expanded to feature dozens of Detroit-based filmmakers and evolved to invite any style of film. Fellows’ films have been screened as part of film festivals locally, nationally, and internationally. Online and in-person film premieres were presented in collaboration with DPBS (formerly DPTV), Trinosophes, Cinema Detroit, and the Detroit Institute of Art’s Detroit Film Theatre.

ESSAYS, PODCASTS, & ARTIST SALONS

• The Practice essay series paired Kresge Artist Fellow Lillien Waller with an array of fellows and Gilda Award recipients to explore and amplify the distinctions among their creative approaches.
  
• An 8 episode podcast series, Subject Matters, hosted by Imani Mixon and co-produced with Red Bull Arts, explored the perspectives of 18 artists, including 11 fellows and Gilda Award recipients. 
• The 22 episode Artist Salon series, co-produced with WDET, featured 50 Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients in conversation with Chris Campbell, Orlando P. Bailey, and Ryan Patrick Hooper.

COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS

• KAID offered five years of support for the editors and featured artists in the Metro Times Fiction Issue (2020 – 2024).
  
• Three Sidewalk Detroit collaborations took place, including a neighborhood performance series during Covid and artist support for Sidewalk Festival, featuring work by Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients. 

“Collaborating with Christina was a transformative opportunity for us to deepen our relationships and encourage radical place-based spatial interventions with some of Detroit’s most dynamic artists,” said Ryan Myers Johnson, former KAID coworker and current executive director at Sidewalk Detroit. “Christina was an exceptional partner, providing financial support and thought partnership on community facing initiatives that served as a powerful collision of creative experimentation, justice and artist empowerment through direct artist commissions at the Sidewalk Festival as well as an several iterations of our Now:Future Initiative, a conference and now residency that encourages artists to explore issues of economic security and spatial justice.”

Working with CCS, deRoos built intentional relationships between KAID and other CCS programs during her tenure to increase opportunities for Detroit artists while contributing to CCS’s mission as a premier art and design college. Kresge Artist Fellows have given lectures at CCS, curated CCS’ alumni exhibition, and been featured in Design Core’s Detroit Month of Design. 

2023 Kresge Artist Fellow Mario Moore works with CCS students on campus

“Christina has made outstanding contributions to the KAID program over the past decade, demonstrating dedication and consistent care and commitment to the metro Detroit arts community,” said Don Tuski, President of CCS. “Her guiding principle of ‘we work for the artists of Detroit’ inspired the program’s approach to engaging artists from a place of trust, service, and collaboration.” 

deRoos has been planning since 2024 to depart the KAID team to focus on her artistic practice and expand her freelance work, coaching emerging and established leaders in arts and culture and supporting philanthropic initiatives advancing economic justice and abundance economies. She spent the past six months as the Director of Leadership Transition, supporting KAID’s new leadership and their preparation to ensure strong programming and resources for artists will continue. 

KAID continues to be staffed by a team of active artists, including Asukile Gardner, Nicole Peterson, Angelina Starceski. As announced earlier this year, succeeding deRoos as director is Katie McGowan, an interdisciplinary artist and advocate. 

McGowan joined the KAID team as managing director in September 2018, was promoted to deputy director in 2022 and director earlier this year. Since 2021, she has led the selection process of the Kresge Eminent Artist Award, most recently awarding virtuoso jazz bassist and educator Marion Hayden, as well as the Kresge Artist Fellowships and Gilda Awards, which will soon include a 2025 cohort of artists to be announced later this month. McGowan created and produced the In the Air: Voices from Detroit and Beyond series with Wayne State University and the KAID Featured Photographer project, currently highlighting 2021 Kresge Artist Fellow Brian Day as he shares monthly documentation of studio practices and public art by Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients.

A native metro Detroiter, McGowan brings deep ties to the local artistic community, having co-founded the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit’s DEPE Space Residency program and served as program director for the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Her personal art practice explores the intersection of literary and performance art, often resulting in genre-bending nonfiction reportage. McGowan holds an MFA from The University of Iowa in Intermedia, as well as MA and BA degrees from Wayne State University in English.