Nora Blog

For Nora’s Culture Lab Pop Up, Detroit’s favorite man of mystery Scott Hocking might be welding an antique Ford Edsel to a sidewalk, or mass producing cassettes of spooky Halloween fart sounds. He might also be producing a book with Nora’s own Toby Barlow called Detroit Nights. Hocking describes the ongoing project (started in the mid 90s) as an attempt to capture the “strange serenity that can be found off the beaten paths”. The book is a selection of the last eight years, after Hocking switched from film to digital. Hocking doesn’t eat breakfast and doesn’t like assholes. His favorite...

Do you have a little one in your life who loves to be in the kitchen? José Regueiro Studios has created beautiful “Li’l Chef” cutting boards, which, like Wu Tang, are for the children. This product is intended to inspire and encourage children’s early interest in food and cooking with a professional grade product. José first started working with wood as a child himself, making a model boat to play with in Lake Michigan. Like a high octane chef, he drinks a lot of espresso for breakfast, and like most Detroiters loves Belle Isle. Come chop it up with him...

Do you like tote bags, but always find yourself wishing they had pockets? Do you recognize quality and appreciate functional classic design? Are you committed to strengthening the social fabric of your community through the empowerment of women? Have you heard about Sew Great Detroit? If you haven’t, it’s an incredible social enterprise program launched by Alternatives for Girls based in Southwest Detroit that just celebrated its first year in existence. The team of women who make up Sew Great produced gorgeous, sturdy market bags for Nora’s Culture Lab collaboration. They began working together a year ago and they...

You’re probably asking yourself what a hornbook is. They are study primers, originating in 15th century Europe, which were often shaped like auction paddles but meant for primary education. Don Kilpatrick III has created an homage to hornbooks with his “Horn Block Printing Kit” for Nora. The kit can be used for learning to relief print or can be displayed as gorgeous artwork in the home. It is an interactive and educational product designed for art collectors and anyone interested in teaching themselves (or others) printmaking. Or, for those already in the know, it can be used to create beautiful...

Tiff Massey is about that life. She is a Detroiter through and through. She liked Belle Isle before the state took it over, and will tell you that just because they renamed Cass Corridor as Midtown, it “doesn’t mean you can treat it like Royal Oak”. The 2015 Kresge Fellow says that the people positively impacting culture in Detroit are the natives, and people who are vested in the city, not invested. She started as a scientist, and now she’s here, creating a bag made of scraps from the automotive industry. Her body of work is sculptural. often wearable, and...