The city of Detroit created the Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship to grow the city's creative economy, advocate for arts and collect tax-deductible donations under a new arts fund.

Rochelle Riley, the former Detroit Free Press columnist who joined the city in May, and Mayor Mike Duggan announced the citywide plan Thursday at The Platform LLC's Chroma development. It's expected to house artists when it opens in the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood.

Detroit lacked an arts and culture office. Riley will head it up, with an emphasis on helping artists succeed economically, shaping the city's direction on arts and culture, increasing education and entrepreneurship and "using arts and culture as catalysts for neighborhood growth," according to a letter she wrote describing her goals.

While the city's general fund will support a small staff under Riley, the arts and culture office will fund its programming philanthropically. That's where the Detroit Arts Fund comes in. It will accept donations from foundations, businesses and individuals — including by asking Detroit businesses to ask customers to donate by rounding up their purchases to the next dollar.

Riley would not disclose a fundraising goal, or any donors.

"When they gave me this job they said, 'How much money do you want?' I said, '$200 million,'" Riley said. "So after everybody got up off the floor, they said, 'Can you go lower?' So we're not going to set a number yet until we get some of our initial folks."

The city is still working out how the fiduciary Detroit Arts Fund will dole out its dollars for "all city arts, culture and entertainment projects as well as office operations," Riley said in a video shown during the Thursday's announcement and to media afterward. "Why would foundations do this? So they do not have to read the 1,200 to 1,500 applications they get, many of which are identical from people who don't know they're all doing the same thing."

A Detroit Arts Endowment will also be created.

Duggan said when he and Riley first sat down to talk about job opportunities, they first chatted about advertising, marketing or writing. But later, according to Duggan, Riley said she thought the city "fails" to support arts and culture. Her "dream job," the mayor said, would be to take the resources of City Hall and put them behind the traditionally "anti-establishment" arts communities. Duggan also said Detroit is competing for talent with cities that show they strongly value the arts, like Chicago or Atlanta.

The unveiling of Riley's plan comes after nine months of research and meetings, a release said.

According to a city booklet and Riley's comments Thursday, the arts and culture office (or ACE) will also: