Michael Moore donates to Flint Spencer Art House Kickstarter, fundraiser at 'critical point'

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The former Spencer's Mortuary on University Avenue is currently under construction. Workers are using primarily recycled materials to fix up the house and turn it into a artists' residency.

(Scott Atkinson | MLive.com)

FLINT, MI — Michael Moore recently made a donation to the Spencer Art House project, putting organizers just within reach of obtaining the funds they need. The work is an effort to rehab a 120-year-old former funeral home in Carriage Town, using almost exclusively recycled materials.

The Flint Public Art Project is spearheading the effort and is looking for $12,000 in a Kickstarter campaign. Kickstarters are online fundraisers in which people make pledges to donate. If those pledges reach the requested amount (in this case the $12,000) they get the money.

The Kickstarter for the Spencer House ends Friday, Oct. 18, at midnight. The Flint Public Art Project was about $400 short of its goal Friday morning.

Andrew Perkins, the architect leading the Spencer Art House project, said Moore’s donation came just in time.

Michael Moore

“I think this really put it to that critical point where people are willing to get behind it now,” he said. “We’re very, very close at this point. It’s just a couple hundred dollars at this point. Just a week ago, we weren’t anywhere close.”

He wouldn’t say how much Moore donated, aside from saying he was the biggest donor and that “It was a substantial amount.”

Kickstarters often have gifts for people who donate at different levels. It hasn’t listed any donors who have pledged $10,000 for the Spencer House campaign, but there is one who has pledged at least at the $2,500 level, meaning that Moore donated somewhere between those two amounts.

(The prize for those who donate at least $2,500 is a one-month residency at the house when it’s completed — the goal is to turn it into an artists residence — but no word on yet if Moore will spend a month at the house.)

The rehab efforts were recently halted at the Spencer house after the city gave a work stop order to FPAP, saying that they had not submitted new blueprints as asked. FPAP countered they weren't aware of the hearings where these requests were made.

Perkins said in the meantime they’ve submitted revised blueprints and met with the building department and he hopes to be back to work within a matter of weeks.

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