Public Commissions

New Beginnings

Scrollathon: Detroit Pistons Performance Center

2019

Commissioned by: Detroit Pistons
Location: Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center, Detroit, Michigan
Medium: Papier-mâché, paint, varnish, brass grommets, screws, plywood, skim coat
Dimensions: 130 × 130 × 4 inches (Collaborative Masterwork); Signature Plates, each 11 × 17 inches
Photograph: Courtesy of the artists
Created in: Detroit, Michigan
Artists’ Registration Numbers:
Collaborative Masterworks: 2019.047.001–2019.047.082
Signature Plates: 2019.047.083–2019.047.084
Mini Portrait Mural: 2022.182.001
Exhibition History:
New Beginnings, Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center, Detroit, Michigan, 2019

Artistic Approach
New Beginnings draws formal inspiration from the Pistons’ circular logo and historic color palette. The composition radiates outward in concentric formations of red, blue, and teal, creating a sense of movement and continuity. Thousands of hand-formed and hand-painted papier-mâché elements were assembled into a unified field, each one representing an individual contribution within a larger collective structure.

Participants engaged in two interconnected acts of making: first creating personal scroll-based works tied to their own experiences, and then contributing to the communal labor of forming and painting elements for the final installation. The resulting surface is dense yet rhythmic, an accumulation of gestures that transforms individual effort into shared form.

Commission Overview
Commissioned by the Detroit Pistons in 2019, New Beginnings was created as a permanent installation for the main lobby of the Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center. Developed through a Scrollathon engaging more than 400 participants from 17 Detroit-based organizations, the project reflects the shared values of teamwork, resilience, and collective momentum that define both the city of Detroit and the Pistons organization.

Conceived during the opening of the Pistons’ new performance facility, the project sought to honor Detroit not only as a sports city, but as a community of makers, thinkers, and collaborators. Through collaborative artmaking, participants contributed to a work that embodies renewal, optimism, and the power of coming together during moments of transition.

Engagement and Impact
In October 2019, Steven and William Ladd led Scrollathon sessions with a wide range of Detroit community groups, including veterans, at-risk youth, adults with disabilities, educators, and civic organizations. Each participant brought their own story into the process, contributing both symbolically and materially to the finished work.

Through repetition, collaboration, and shared focus, participants experienced how small actions—painting, shaping, assembling—can build toward something monumental. Installed at the heart of the Pistons’ facility, New Beginnings stands as a visible testament to community presence, affirming that creativity and teamwork are inseparable.

Context and Legacy
New Beginnings marked a significant milestone within the evolution of Scrollathon: the program’s first commission with an NBA franchise and its second large-scale collaboration with a major professional sports organization. Installed permanently at the Detroit Pistons Performance Center, the work demonstrates how collaborative, community-driven art can live meaningfully within environments dedicated to performance, discipline, and collective excellence.

Portraits-of-Community-Artists-at-Michigan-Detroit-Pistons-Scrollathon

Engagement and Impact
In October 2019, Steven and William Ladd led Scrollathon sessions with a wide range of Detroit community groups, including veterans, at-risk youth, adults with disabilities, educators, and civic organizations. Each participant brought their own story into the process, contributing both symbolically and materially to the finished work.

Through repetition, collaboration, and shared focus, participants experienced how small actions—painting, shaping, assembling—can build toward something monumental. Installed at the heart of the Pistons’ facility, New Beginnings stands as a visible testament to community presence, affirming that creativity and teamwork are inseparable.

The project aligns the Pistons’ commitment to civic engagement with Scrollathon’s belief in universal creativity, positioning art as a connective force between athletes, institutions, and the broader Detroit community. Rooted in participation and permanence, New Beginnings functions both as artwork and as record—of a city in motion, a team grounded in its community, and hundreds of individuals contributing to a shared future.

Signature-Plate-Michigan-Detroit-Pistons-Scrollathon

Special Thanks
Awenate Cobbina; Charles and Barbara Ladd; Chelsey Oeffler; Chris Economeas; Laurie Ann Farrell; Nancy Tellem

Acknowledgments
The Scrollathon team; National Scrollathon Interns and Fellows; Timothy Lewis and Babette Husson; and the staff of the Detroit Pistons

Community Groups
ACCESS Detroit; BINGO Mentors and Mentees – Bing Youth Institute; Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan; Cass Community Social Services; City Year Detroit; Covenant House Michigan; Detroit Chess Club; Detroit PAL; Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development; Peace Players; Ruth Ellis Center; SAY Detroit; Slow Roll Detroit; Spain Elementary; Special Olympics Michigan; U.S. Army Tank – Automotive and Armaments Command; Wish Upon A Teen