DETROIT SALON™ is Detroit’s landmark global contemporary art show and exhibitions platform. Its mission is to strengthen access and visibility for Detroit and Michigan’s artists and creative communities on a national and international stage through global partnerships with leading art and culture organizations, exhibitions and a major new global contemporary art show in Detroit in 2028. 

Executed in collaboration with civic, cultural, and global partners, and developed by Salonniere, the platform connects local artists with global audiences, collectors, curators, critics and institutions through a dual approach: outbound exhibitions at leading art shows and fairs and inbound programming that welcomes the global art world to Detroit. From 2028 onward, DETROIT SALON will continue biannually as a city-wide major contemporary art show that reimagines the art show model through a Midwest lens of inclusion, hospitality, and cultural exchange. The organization is a women-led, fiscally-sponsored nonprofit.

Partners include Visit Detroit, MEDC, CultureSource, TechTown, Michigan Municipal League Foundation, UM Arts Initiative, Villa Albertine, Art Basel, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair.

Arab American National Museum, Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club, Cranbrook Art Museum, Kresge Arts in Detroit, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Modern Ancient Brown, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Black Artists Archive, Wayne State University, Pensole Lewis College, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, and the Flint Institute of Arts.

Detroit and Michigan have world class talent, infrastructure and resources and deserve to be celebrated on the world stage. Integrating metro Detroit’s world-class cultural institutions and artists within the highest levels of the global art world, a signature city-wide contemporary art initiative and expo will put Detroit on the global art map. It will increase access, diversity and inclusion in the art market by celebrating Detroit’s brilliant and diverse artists and communities.

Artists for 2025 have been selected through an industry standard nominations process. Over 50 community nominators (organizations and individuals) nominated close to 100 Michigan artists, which have been sent to a selection jury of local, national and global jurors. 

For 2026-2028 exhibitions, artists will be chosen through a transparent, equitable open call. We are targeting January 2026 for the release of the open call in advance of exhibitions in June and October 2026.

If you would like to learn more about these opportunities, please tell us a little more about yourself and your ideas above.

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