Lawrence B. Johnson / Special to The Detroit News Like a lot of other Detroiters, Rick Robinson had strolled numberless times past that distinctively rounded corner building at E. Grand River Avenue and Centre Street, without ever knowing what was inside.
But today, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra bassist could lead tours of the historically registered structure, erected in 1895 by a German musical society called the Harmonie Club. What it has come to mean to Robinson is both personal and professional. And it is profound.
After years of neglect and decay, the venerable Harmonie Building has been restored to new beauty and purpose as the Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center. It is the new home of the Arts League of Michigan, a learning advocate and presenter that fosters African-American artistic enterprise in all its forms.
"It's another venue outside Orchestra Hall where I feel I can make a difference," says Robinson, who now belongs to a select group of resident artists at the Carr Center.
Opened last July after a $460,000 reclamation, the Carr Center has pulled together musicians and music teachers, artists and art teachers, writers and literary mentors to foster what Arts League president Oliver Ragsdale Jr. calls "Detroit's incredible array of African-American talent."
