Our roundup of the latest news from metro Detroit and Michigan businesses as well as announcements from government agencies, including updates about the COVID-19 pandemic. To share a business or nonprofit story, please send us a message.
Warby Parker Eyewear Store Opening at Twelve Oaks Mall
Retail eyewear company Warby Parker will be opening a store at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi on Jan. 29. This is the company’s second store in metro Detroit and the fourth store in Michigan.
The store will offer eye exams and carry the company’s full sun and optical eyewear offerings as well as its first brand of daily contact lenses, Scout by Warby Parker, as well as third-party contacts.
Warby Parker has teamed with local artist Rose Wong to create a custom mural for the store and in celebration of the opening, will be offering a limited-edition print of the artwork free for customers as well as cookies from M Street Baking Co. throughout opening weekend (while supplies last).
For more information, visit here.
Wolverine Inspires High School Students to Explore Skilled Trades
Wolverine, the Rockford-based boot and clothing brand, is focused on driving awareness around the untapped opportunity of skilled trade careers, and inspiring young people to learn more about the skilled trades as a path.
In partnership with unCommon Construction — a nonprofit organization that works with high school apprentices to build houses and gain technical, professional, and personal skills — Wolverine is launching a special-edition collaboration collection to benefit high school students interested in pursuing careers in the skilled trades.
The initiative is part of Wolverine’s Project Bootstrap program, which has celebrated and supported those choosing to pursue a path in the skilled trades through a variety of efforts including scholarships and educational awareness initiatives since 2014.
“It’s imperative we reach students in more relevant ways so they can learn more about the skilled trades and consider them as a potential future path,” says Tom Kennedy, global brand president for Wolverine. “Organizations like unCommon Construction introduce kids to the rich opportunities to be found in the trades that they aren’t learning about in school.”
As part of this initiative, the unCommon Construction apprentices collaborated with the bootmaker to develop a new unCommon Construction boot, designed after months spent wearing boots on the job, learning practical trade skills and building houses in New Orleans.
“At unCommon Construction, we see first-hand the interest and excitement young people experience learning about the opportunities they have in the skilled trades,” says Aaron Frumin, founder and executive director of unCommon Construction. “It’s rewarding to continue to partner with a brand like Wolverine that also recognizes the value of raising awareness of the trades while giving students the tools and access they need to be successful.”
For more information, visit here.
DIA Exhibit Honors Italian Women Artists
A new exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts, “By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500–1800,” explores the untold stories of women artists in the male-dominated Italian art world.
Running Feb. 6-May 29, the exhibit highlights 17 ingenious women of this time period, featuring confident self-portraits, realistic still lifes, scenes of women’s bravery, and meditative religious scenes.
By Her Hand is organized by the DIA and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., and was previously on view in Hartford from Sept. 30, 2021-Jan. 9, 2022. The DIA is the only other (and final) venue for this exhibition.
Described by The New York Times as “…the most significant American show of women of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque eras since 2007,” the exhibition features 57 works from private and public American collections, along with a significant number of loans from Europe. Through these works of art in diverse media — from paintings to prints — the fascinating stories of early modern Italian women artists will be told. This is the first exhibition devoted to women artists before the modern era at both institutions — an important historical milestone, which was prompted and inspired by major advances in scholarship on the subject of women artists over the last 50 years.
Tickets can be purchased at here or by calling 313-833-7900. Ticket prices range from $8-$18 and are free for DIA members and discounted for residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. This is the DIA’s first ticketed exhibition since the pandemic, signaling a continued return to normal operations. Masks are required for all visitors, regardless of vaccination status.
Lansing’s Carbidex Partners to Bring Cannabis-infused Wine to Michigan
House of Saka, Inc., producer of alcohol-free, cannabis-infused wines in Napa Valley, announced an exclusive partnership with Lansing-based Carbidex, a family-owned holding entity with companies rooted in the cannabis and facilities management industries, to provide full-service manufacturing, bottling, and distribution.
“Partnering with companies that exemplify our mission to ‘Bring good people together and enhance lives by creating extraordinary cannabis experiences’ is crucial to us,” says Russell Chambers, founder and CEO of Carbidex. “The team at House of Saka embodies our core values and mission. We are honored to bring the extraordinary House of Saka products to the Michigan market.”
The first of House of Saka’s luxury infused beverages, Saka Spark Mimosa, will launch at Carbidex’s retail locations, The Botanical Co. in Lansing this spring. Available in 187 milliliter single-serve champagne bottles. It blends premium, alcohol-removed sparkling Chardonnay with mimosa strain-specific live resin and natural essence of orange blossom and nectarine.
“Finding a partner who both shares and supports our rigorous quality standards and core company values was our most important goal,” says Tracey Mason, House of Saka co-founder and CEO. “Carbidex was a perfect match. Their deep understanding of infused beverages, manufacturing, and the Michigan market made them the best possible fit to meet our short and long-term goals.”
