Arts-Based Community Development Convening
Transforming Post-Industrial Cities through Art and Innovation
April 12 through 14, 2012 - St. Louis

Margarita Barry

CEO, Founder, & Publisher – I am Young Detroit

Panelist - 10:45 am, Wednesday, April 6th – Upstarts! – Strengthening Creative Small Businesses

Margarita Barry is an entrepreneur, multimedia artist, and changemaker who is the creative force behind I Am Young Detroit, Detroit Design Lab and the upcoming 71 POP. The Detroit native and Bizdom U graduate has worked in design and media for companies like Sussman Sikes & Associates, CBS Radio, and the Michigan Business Review before launching I Am Young Detroit, an online publication and movement with a mission to attract and retain young talent in the City of Detroit.

She first got involved in multimedia in 1998 when she started printing her own zines and designing websites. As a pre-teen, Margarita became Mudd Jeans online’s first ever teen editor, and illustrated for the popular 90’s catalog Airshop and teen website PlanetKiki.com. In 2004 she founded Tint Magazine and tintmagazine.com, a multicultural magazine and online community created to “Celebrate Women of Every Color.” Tint was the first of its kind went on to grow a cult following and receive nods from the likes of Ellegirl Magazine, YPulse, Teen People, and Crain’s Detroit. Margarita also founded HUES: Designers of Color, a web-based community and resource center for minority creatives, in 2007.

This summer Margarita will open 71 POP, Detroit’s first ever creative space solely dedicated to collaborative pop-up retail and 71 Artists, its companion website that highlights the artists living, working, or showing in the Sugarhill Arts District. She’ll also be launching I Am Young Detroit’s post-beta website, and Garbish—her own ready-to-wear contemporary women’s collection.