These Michigan communities were selected to host innovative placemaking projects in a ‘tricked out’ shipping container

What’s happening: The power of placemaking will be delivered by way of a “tricked out”
shipping container later this year, a mobile art installation that will rotate between four Michigan
communities beginning in May and concluding this October. Each installation will be unique to
its host community as artists and organizations engage their neighbors through art and local
culture.

What it is: The Make/Shift Pitch Haus grant competition was first announced in October 2025.
The Michigan Growth Office launched the placemaking contest in partnership with Creative
Place Consulting and Studio M Detroit, awarding four $25,000 grants to projects that can
amplify a sense of place through the creative arts.

How it works: The Pitch Haus is a 20-foot-long shipping container with built-in lighting and
audio/video capabilities that offers a “blank canvas” for the selected artists. Sliding windows
create a stage area and blank walls provide space for hanging art or projection mapping. The
Pitch Haus will be installed in each community for a period of time beginning in May before it
continues its Michigan tour through October.

What’s coming: In Idlewild, the Detroit-based CONTAINER organization for creatives will bring
their “Return of Idlewild” multi-day cultural retreat to the community in an effort to revive
Idlewild’s historic legacy as a place for Black creativity and leisure. In Chelsea, Pitch Haus will
spend two weeks at the “A Seat at the Table” event, a four month-long storytelling and art
festival planned for this summer. In Grand Rapids, Second Vibess will transform the shipping
container into a sustainable fashion gallery with daily events planned. And in Traverse City,
Pitch Haus will arrive in time for Traverse City Design Week and become VoxBox, where a
cinematic storytelling chamber displays local design and invites guests to cast their votes in an
effort to define what “radical design” means for Northern Michigan.

Why it’s important: “Hosting Pitch Haus allows us to elevate radical, local, interdisciplinary
designers–those reimagining sustainability, community and culture through design–and invite
the public to engage with their work in an experiential way,” reads a statement from Jessica
Kooiman Parker and Dana Lacuesta, co-founders of Traverse City Design Week. “Through this
activation, Pitch Haus becomes a bridge between creators, collaborators and the broader
community, amplifying not just individual projects, but the collective creative identity of Northern
Michigan.”