'Kintsugi Village,' a childhood center, space for artists and community, planned for Corktown

DETROIT (WXYZ) — On Monday afternoon, Hamsa Daher showed us around the building that was St. Vincent Middle School in Detroit's Corktown.

It's the building she and her co-founder Paul Spiegelman are now working to turn into Kintsugi Village

"This is going to be a community hub," Daher explained.

Kintsugi Village is a nonprofit.

Daher told 7 News Detroit that the first floor of the building will be an early childhood education center for 3-year-olds to 5-year-olds.

The second floor will be home to an artist incubator and a retreat center.

"It will be a collaborative sort of space, so we'll have a residency program that will support up and coming artists, where they can hone their skills and also learn the business side of things," Daher said.

The third floor is planned to be an event space and have a culinary kitchen.

Daher said the idea is that those working and learning on each of the floors will co-exist and support each other.

"So the kitchen will serve food for the kiddos at the school. It will also serve food for any groups in the building," Daher said.

Bobby Jones lives next door to the building and told 7 News Detroit, "Our neighborhood's really cool, but especially for people who have lived here a long time, there isn't a whole lot of important community things that you'd expect to have."

It's because of this that Jones said he's really excited about the building concept.

"It's going to be really awesome. You wouldn't think it, but there is a lot of children in this neighborhood, so it's going to be a good benefit," Jones said.

Longtime Detroiter Nadia told 7 News Detroit she enjoyed the idea of the artist incubator.

"As an artist, we like having those safe spaces because a lot of times, we feel like we have to go abroad to those spaces," she said.

Daher said Corktown community members have informed her that parking has become a problem since the Detroit neighborhood has spiked in growth. For this reason Daher said Kintsugi Village will have on-site parking, as well as a greenhouse and community garden.

"That's really an opportunity to invite the community in, so they feel like this is all sort of theirs and they can participate in that," Daher said.

Kintsugi is a Japanese art, which means to join with gold, to piece broken shards together again and create a more beautiful object.

That's exactly what Daher hopes to do with Kintsugi Village.

"Detroit has been through a lot and is resilient but when we all come together, we're stronger, we're much more supportive of each other and that's really the metaphor for this sort of work we are doing here," Daher said.

Kintsugi Village's childhood center is planned to open in September 2025. Daher said the second and third floor will open in the months that follow.