Sami Salameh

DEARBORN — Local resident Sami Salameh is starting a business out of a truck. But don’t expect to buy tacos, burgers or hot dogs. Salameh is looking to sell art supplies, including paint, paper and brushes. 

It will be the area’s first mobile art supplies store.  

“I’m putting the whole concept of an art retail store into a step van,” Salameh told The Arab American News. 

He said the truck would announce its location on social media to draw customers. 

“Typically it will in areas where there are art students and working artists— art fairs, art galleries, art schools,” he said.

Salameh, an artist himself, is calling his company Jivehouse after jive talk, a distinctive dialect associated with Jazz music that became popular among artists in the 1940’s.

Salameh, 31, said that when he was growing up, his parents— much like other Arab Americans— wanted him to pursue a white collar profession. But he had other ideas. He studied psychology in college, but nothing gave him satisfaction except drawing and painting.

Jivehouse is Salameh’s way to be a part of the art scene while helping fellow artists.

“I worked a corporate job 9-5, making good money,” he said. “And then one day I had this idea. I wanted to be involved in the art world and I took a chance. I saw an opportunity. Detroit was exploding with all the talent; artists coming from everywhere to want to paint in Detroit, and there is only one art supply store down there.”

The Jivehouse truck will not only sell art. The step van itself will be a mobile artwork. Salameh plans to display graffiti paintings on the side of his truck, featuring different artists from time to time.

Salameh said he is still in the process of buying the step van and the material for his business. But he is hopeful about the prospects of success.

“The art supply business is a multi-billion dollar industry in America alone and there are only a few big bucks companies that are dominating the market,” he said. “There is a lot of room for someone like me to go after that niche market.”

Salameh is acquainting himself with the art supply industry and has made a handful of sales to painters whose work is on display at prominent venues in Detroit, including the Hop Cat, a big bar in Midtown. 

The artist expects his truck to be on the road by October.

Salameh attended an eight-week class for creative entrepreneur at the ACCESS Growth Center, where he studied networking and managing techniques on how to start and grow his business. 

The aspiring businessman is crowd-funding his project to raise the necessary capital for it. But his Indiegogo account has only raised $90 in a month.

“It’s a tricky thing to ask strangers to donate money,” Salameh said.

However, he added that his project deserves the support because artists, whom he is trying to serve, are essential to the wellbeing to society.

“I don’t want to be a shop that just sells art supplies,” he said. “I am creating a brand that uplifts artists and helps them succeed to make a living off of their art. If they can save money on art supplies, it allows them to make a little more money from their art.”

Salameh said art can carry a message deeper than personal expression.

“Art is a tool for social change,” he said. “It’s not just something you do because it makes you feel good. It’s not just about drawing a good picture. It is something that you pour your heart and soul into. It creates a visual idea that can be powerful.”

Salameh added that art can be instrumental in changing perceptions about a certain place or community, adding that it is an “interesting time” to be an Arab or Detroiter.

Salameh is married and has two dogs. He has a day job at a pharmacy and photographs graffiti murals in Detroit as a hobby. 

To donate to Jivehouse go to: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jivehouse-detroit-s-first-portable-art-supply–2#/story