The Sanctuary Detroit is a non-profit organization focused around providing a welcoming and safe environment for everyone to view a variety of events from live music, movie screenings, charity events, dance parties, art shows and much more.

					Early Years The early stages of what would become the Sanctuary came from something as small as house shows, after years of going house to house (Halfway House & Yonka House) between 2012-2014 hosting over 400 shows for artists such as Weekend Nachos, The Mongoloids, The Banner, Homewrecker, Discourse, Abigail Williams, Jucifer and way more, during this time the city started running out of stable venues or all ages music specific spaces so we finally stepped our game up and located a real space.

					Opening and Original Location The building was built in the 1940’s and was originally a bar, before being bought out by a religious group and eventually turned into a “storefront church”. It remained open for many years, during which time it switched up owners and denominations. After awhile, it became vacant and sat waiting for someone to find some type of use, around July of 2014 we scouted the building as it was only a mile from our current house, the size, and setup was ideal for what we were looking to do though it was going to be a fixer upper. After months of planning, saving and negotiations with the owners a deal was finally struck and papers were signed in mid November which was great timing as the lease for the house we were at was just ending. The official grand opening was on December 12th, 2014. The lease was signed over on November 14th, meaning there was very little time available to begin the transformation into a proper space. From the day we received keys until the day of the first event, construction took place. We had to replace 70% of the flooring, fix the ceiling, update heating, upgrade the bathroom, and many more projects. It was a huge learning experience for all involved, though the space was owned and run by one person we have always been lucky enough to have an array of wonderful volunteers to help with everything from construction, day to day and show help After the initial opening and beginning of events, the real transformation started taking place. We completely re-did the floors, painted, added a barrier wall separating the show room and the front, we added in a small record store also upfront by the entry way. *as of November 2015 we started working on our newest project, an outdoor patio area!! A huge dream was to have all the walls decorated with beautiful art by people in our growing community. We’ve had so many amazing artists come in and add their special touches with beautiful pieces and many more to come. In late October of 2015 the building unfortunately was broken into and robbed heavily, unsure of what to do we hosted a successful Gofund me fund raiser that brought in over $5000 in generous donations. The community was more than willing to help get the space back on its feet. Money was used toward repairs, bills and further upgrades. The generosity still shocks me, but people can be amazing sometimes. More to come, when i have time to write it out.