CAID'S MISSION:The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit is a community based non-profit organization. CAID fosters and promotes the essential link between contemporary arts and contemporary society through its exhibitions, performances, critical and public discourse and the funding of contemporary arts and art related activities.
CAID is a 501(c)(3) certified non-profit organization. Donations and membership dues are tax-deductible to the extent of Michigan and Federal law.
CAID'S HISTORY:CAID was founded in 1978 by a visionary group of Detroit area artists, including Charles McGee and Jean Heilbrunn. In the years since its inception, CAID has existed in several different forms, and has generated many impressive events that have directly supported the arts in Detroit.
In 1980, CAID sponsored Exhibition Sites 1, 2, and 3. This show included performance, conceptual and video art at Hart Plaza during the Republican Convention. In 1984, CAID crossed the border to work with Artcite in Windsor. In both 1984 and 1985, CAID sponsored A Road Show, an exhibition that toured a number of Michigan cities, as well as Chicago. A four part lecture series was held at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1989, and again in 1991. In that same year area artists were invited to create art for the Art Time Capsule, buried in Harmonie Park, as well as a plethora of other visual, musical and performance art events throughout the past 26 years.
In the fall of 2002, CAID re-emerged on the Detroit art community with the four-part series LINK. LINK included an exhibition of Detroit-based artists at detroit contemporary, a symposium on Detroit music at Wayne State University, an electronic-music party called Frequency at the detroit contemporary, and Motor City Breakdown, a live-music show at the Magic Stick.
In the winter of 2004, CAID presented unCAGEd: the exploration of non-intention, a mixed-medium event based on the theories of John Cage, presented in collaboration with Ann Arbor's University Musical Society in celebration of a performance by New York's Merce Cunningham Dance Company. unCAGEd featured a varied group of Detroit and Ann Arbor-based exploratory artists, musicians and performers working/playing in the Cage frame of chance, reflecting the pure energy felt in Cunningham's guided improvisation.
In November of 2005, a fter 25 years of nomadic existence, hosting its unique contemporary art exhibitions in diverse venues, the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) finally ha d a space to call its own. CAID took up residence at 5141 Rosa Parks Boulevard, in the space formerly occupied by detroit contemporary. The newly remodeled gallery serves as an exhibition and performance space and headquarters for the organization.
CAID's first exhibition in its new home featured the work of five former board members of CAID from the past 20 years. The former board members served as curators, each selecting one local established or emerging artist to present work alongside his or her own work. Besides the individual artworks, the show included a comprehensive history of the organization and the works that were a part of it, as well as a series of lectures, talks and/or performances.
CAID remains steadfast to its mission as it develops an eclectic schedule of exhibitions, events and educational programs for the 2008 season.