{"id":130,"date":"2016-11-02T11:08:55","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T15:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/?p=130"},"modified":"2016-11-22T13:50:24","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T18:50:24","slug":"bringing-a-world-of-design-to-the-dcdc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/2016\/11\/02\/bringing-a-world-of-design-to-the-dcdc\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing a world of design to the DCDC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bucky
Bucky Willis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year, Rebecca \u201cBucky\u201d Willis ’12 is seeing the world and the way design makes it better.<\/p>\n

The recipient of five international fellowships, Willis has been to Toronto, Athens and Salzburg, Austria this year; closer to home, fellowships have taken her to Vermont and Chicago and, next year, to Washington state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was blessed this year,\u201d Willis, who is a project manager and designer with University of Detroit Mercy\u2019s Detroit Collaborative Design Center, says. \u201cLast year, I applied for every fellowship I knew about and got turned down for everything. This year, it was the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely rare for someone to receive so many fellowships,\u201d said DCDC Executive Director Dan Pitera. \u201cIn fact it is common to apply to more than one in hopes that you can better your chances. We never guessed she would receive them all; it is a true testament to the quality and integrity of Rebecca\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five fellowships in which Willis is participating are:<\/p>\n

880 Cities Emerging City Champion Fellowship:<\/strong> Sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, this fellowship provides professional support and $5,000 to young innovators to create a project designed to \u201cenhance civic engagement, improve mobility and activate public life in public spaces,\u201d according to 880\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n

Willis\u2019 project, called \u201cSkyscape\u201d will transform a dilapidated commercial building into a roofless community space in the Lindale Gardens neighborhood near I-75 and Seven Mile. \u201cI\u2019m calling it a park with walls and envisioning it to be a gathering space for the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a neighborhood she knows well, having grown up there and been inspired by the community work done by her parents. The project will be built in collaboration with the DCDC and Bleeding Heart Design, a nonprofit organization and design movement designed to inspire altruism. Willis founded Bleeding Heart Design, which was formed from her master\u2019s thesis research.<\/p>\n

Creative Community Leader Fellowship:<\/strong> National Arts Strategies is an organization that supports initiatives that come at the intersection of community, arts and culture. This fellowship focuses on building skills and relationships with others who have projects addressing similar issues. What began as a network of financial stabilization programs for cultural organizations is now an organization that provides leadership education for those in the arts and culture fields. Fellowships go to artists, designers, cultural entrepreneurs, grantmakers and executives. Participants discussed ideas \u201call together in one house for a week in the middle of Vermont,\u201d Willis said. In January, after months of video meetings with fellows, the group will reunite in Washington state to pitch ideas to venture capitalists for potential funding.<\/p>\n

Ethical Redevelopment Salon Sessions:<\/strong> This invitation-only fellowship focuses on theories of ethical development. \u201cWhere in much redevelopment, the end goal is a financial reward, but with this, projects are more community driven and it\u2019s about increasing engagement with the neighborhood and trying to get people to think about redevelopment through that lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

IdeasCity Athens Artist Residency:<\/strong> This event involved a week in Athens, Greece, sleeping in \u201cthese strange tents,\u201d Willis said, in the middle of the city. Forty participants chosen from around the world met \u201cnot really to solve problems, but to think things through and to listen to what other people and cities are doing.\u201d It\u2019s sponsored by the New Museum of New York City, whose website says the program is designed to be collaborative, and starts \u201cwith the premise that art and culture are essential to the future vitality of cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t there to solve Athens\u2019 problems,\u201d Willis said, \u201cbut to learn more about the city and the work the other fellows are doing in cities across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Innovators:<\/strong> This 10-year project brings together young intellectuals from around the world to discuss social improvement and sustainable development. Only 50 applicants are chosen from more than 500 applications. Sharing ideas and listening to development movements from around the world help participants develop skills, vision and networks needed to advance their organizations, causes and communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many great ideas around the world and, in the long run, participating in these fellowships will only strengthen my work,\u201d Willis said.<\/p>\n

Over its 23-year history, DCDC staff have earned 14 national and international fellowships, Pitera said. He says it\u2019s important that DCDC employees participate in such programs for two significant reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, we want to have a culture built on the exchange of knowledge among all of us,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd second, we want a culture that celebrates and supports everyone who works at the DCDC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitera continued: \u201cI have known Rebecca since she was a freshman. She came to Detroit Mercy with a mission. She was driven and dove into her education. She is still driven and continues to dive into everything she engages in. She brings a unique blend of talent, intelligence, passion and integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willis is honored to have been chosen to participate in these fellowships and has plans to apply for more: \u201cThe way I figure it is that you miss 100 percent of the shots you don\u2019t take, so I apply for everything and hope for the best. The University has been really supportive of me and I feel like a really privileged person here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year, Rebecca \u201cBucky\u201d Willis ’12 is seeing the world and the way design makes it better. The recipient of five international fellowships, Willis has been to Toronto, Athens and Salzburg, Austria this year; closer to home, fellowships have taken her to Vermont and Chicago and, next year, to Washington …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2016\/11\/IMG_8813.jpg?fit=5184%2C3456&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-26","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}