THE CORRIDOR | Cass Corridor: From the 1970s to the Present | Bruce Harkness, Roger Martin and Karl Wellman

THE CORRIDOR
Cass Corridor: From the 1970s to the Present

Oct 1 -24, 2026 | Opens Thursday Oct 1, 5-8pm

Before the coffee shops, galleries, studios, and new businesses, there was another Cass Corridor.

In the 1970s, the Corridor was gritty, unpredictable, and often dangerous. It was a place many people avoided. Yet within that difficult landscape, artists, musicians, and members of Detroit’s counterculture found places to gather, make work, and build community beyond the mainstream.

The danger was real. So was the creativity.

Through the photographs of Roger Martin, Bruce Harkness, and Karl Wellman, The Corridor looks back at a neighborhood in transition—its streets and buildings, its residents and regulars, its bars and music scene, and the people who gave the Corridor its enduring cultural legacy.

These are not simply photographs of a bygone Detroit. They are photographs of a place that helped shape the city’s artistic history—and a reminder that the places where culture takes root are often far more complicated than the stories we tell about them later.