Detroit is a city teeming with brilliant art, and I am not just talking about the DIA. Series of street art twist through the city and cover the dull industrial buildings with color and vibrant life, but soon one of the most iconic pieces of Detroit art will no longer exist.
The Heidelberg Project is a outdoor art experience from the mind of artist Tyree Guyton that transforms the old and used into something wondrous for all ages to enjoy. There is no charge to walk through the neighborhood at 3600 Heidelberg St. on Detroit’s East side and it is open to the public 24 hours a day as it has been for 30 years, but it is only a matter of time this experience will be a distance memory for the city. Tyree Guyton has plans to dismantle his work over the next two years as he works towards something he has never done before. It is unclear if it is the vandalism of his works, the 12 suspicious fires the project has endured since May 2013, or the fact of Guyton’s age that has influenced him to walk away from maintaining the two block art project.
The Heidelberg Project began in 1989 as an idea on how to bring people together to see Detroit as, not decrepit buildings and boarded up homes, but a work of art. Artist Tyree Guyton managed to bring in 200,000 people annually to Detroit to inspire creativity and exhibit Detroit’s proud culture. Though it is revered today as a staple in Detroit street art, it was not always seen that way.
As the project resides on two blocks of city owned property, in 1991 and 1999 city officials dispatched bulldozers to tear it down while residents called his items junk and even the then-Mayor, Coleman A. Young stated the project was not “art”, but national art magazines said exactly the opposite and even the Detroit Institute of Art invited Guyton to exhibit his art.
People flock from other states and even other countries to experience something we as Michiganders have in our own backyard and soon enough it will become a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Go and explore as you may find something extraordinary!
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