Through upcoming children’s talk show Mixture of Four, young hosts are on a quest to demonstrate that self-expression and art are not just valuable but essential, championing the importance of arts and culture in Detroit’s future.
The magic all started with Bri Hayes, the gallery director of Detroit Contemporary. During her time as a student teacher at University Prep Art and Design Elementary School last academic year, Hayes developed a close bond with four 11-year-old boys: Oscar Callahan, Cleveland Gregory III, David Winkler, and Sy’Aire Liddell.
Recognizing their unique artistic interests, she conceived the idea for a children’s talk show. Hayes initially discussed the concept with Aaron Timlin, the founder of Detroit Contemporary and head of the Chalfonte Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to serving children and communities in need. The idea eventually evolved into Mixture of Four, which is now sponsored by The Chalfonte Foundation, as well as the Michigan Arts & Culture Council administration by CULTURESOURCE.
“They’re very bright, very creative children and that just kind of ended up being the group that I grew closest with while working there,” Hayes says. “When I proposed the idea of a talk show to them, I didn’t mention anything about content and I didn’t have to, because when I mentioned it, they were like ‘Oh, we could do this, this, this, this, this,’ which is exactly what Aaron and I were discussing could be what the show was about, so it was just kind of meant to be.”
After months of filming, Mixture of Four is now set to come out this November or December. The series will consist of five hour-long episodes, with 15-minute segments from each boy introducing themselves, plus asking questions and doing hands-on work with different Detroit artists of varying mediums, ages, and experience levels in unique settings.
The final of the 20 recordings took place at Susan Aaron-Taylor's home and studio, given a distinct personality with a strong smell of sage, landline phones, shelves full of knick-knacks, and walls of unique art. Oscar Callahan, whose interests are urban farming and cooking, made pancakes with Aaron-Taylor and interviewed her about her sculptures and long career as an artist in the city.
Callahan also did an episode with Andy Hollyday, executive chef and owner of Selden Standard, an eatery that opened in Detroit in 2014. The pair met at the restaurant and prepared a meal together while discussing Hollyday’s career.
“Oscar interviewed me. It was great. We had a nice little chat on the patio and then we went into the kitchen and did a little cooking demo for the cameras. He was a lot of fun, just like super into everything and working with a knife and helping me grill the ribs and we got to cook over a live fire,” Hollyday says. “It’s cool to see somebody so young and passionate about food. It’s not always the case, some kids just don’t get there until later or sometimes not at all. So honestly, it was a bit inspiring for me just to see. His inspiration kind of rubbed off on me.”
Along with showcasing that children can influence adults just as easily as the other way around, another purpose of the show is to highlight different cultural areas of Detroit, Hayes says. So, taking the boys to each individual artist's personal workspace helped that goal.
Cleveland Gregory III met with Sabrina Nelson, multidisciplinary Detroit artist and assistant director of admissions at the College for Creative Studies. The two worked together at Nelson’s studio, which she describes as "very welcoming, warm, and spiritual.”
As Gregory is interested in visual art, he helped the local artist put a background on one of her paintings. Nelson says the coolest part was seeing Gregory transition from his initial shyness to a more open curiosity.
“He was a little quiet… it was really nice watching him loosen up and warm up into Cleveland the artist or Cleveland the creative or Cleveland the kid who is willing to try anything,” she says. “We never know what’s gonna happen with Cleveland, but he’s gonna be something great because he’s got a group of people around him helping to nurture and foster his creativity in his world.”
Nelson spoke to Metro Times about her life as an educator and mentor, highlighting that the way she impacts people is as if she has a handful of seeds that she is blowing and spreading around Detroit to help people grow in various ways over the years.
“However I’ve touched them, nurtured them, fed them, clothed them, had encouraging words, or just kind of gave a head nod. However [the seeds] land, they land and they spread like wildflowers,” Nelson says. “That is my hope for Detroit’s future, how I see myself in the community of artists. I’m supporting them. If it can’t be financial, it’s lending an ear, having a bowl to eat on my porch, coming and listening to some great music, and just having a conversation.”
Another unique studio visit was Sy’Aire Liddell’s meeting with performing artist Satori Circus, whose space is an old warehouse cluttered with props and costumes, and filled with artwork of himself that people have given him over the years.
Previously working as an educator, the artist says that working with Liddell, whose interests are performing arts and acting, was a “blast from the past.”
“It seems like the older we get, the more afraid we are to make a mistake and usually you just need to talk to kids and tell them there are no mistakes. With Sy’Aire, you could tell he was just checking me out, and feeling me out,” Satori Circus says. “I told him to chill out on my couch and I told him to throw his legs up and as soon as he did that, he just relaxed and we went for it and we started just like having fun, talking back and forth and having a good time and giggling and asking each other questions about who we are, what we are, where we're going, what we like, what we don't like.”
All of the artists talked about how children are the future, and allowing these boys the opportunity to see adults succeeding in creative fields is important.
“Self-expression is something that’s important to all of us on many levels, whatever that level is for the individual… I think for the young boys to be exposed to a lot of different artists doing a lot of different things and being open about bringing them into their world and exposing them and talking to them and saying, ‘It's cool. It’s OK, let’s rock and roll. Let’s do this.’ I think it gives them an opportunity just to see that it's okay because they see these individuals doing what they're doing," Satori Circus says. “Children are the future. They’re always gonna be the future. It's always how it's going to be, so why not shape them and give them some tools and give them the freedom to make up their own minds and pick their own stuff.”
Hayes says that the important part of the boys asking questions to the artists is the fact that they are able to both learn and teach others the benefit of arts and culture for communities.
“I feel like a lot of times people underestimate the power of children… in my almost six years of teaching, I’ve probably learned way more from my students than they probably have from me, which I see as such a blessing. It’s a mutual learning,” she says. “Especially in urban or rural communities, art is not seen as valuable and it’s taken away from school systems very often and so to highlight that and the importance of arts and culture in a community, I think is not only important to me, or important to the kids or the people involved, but for anybody watching.”
Mixture of Four will soon be featured on the Detroit Broadcasting Company’s website, a program of the Chalfonte Foundation that will stream new and curated programming showcasing arts and culture from the Detroit area.
Anyone interested in watching can check The Chalfonte Foundation's website for updates on the show's release.
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