Artist Tyree Guyton started this ongoing community art project in the heart of Detroit in 1986 as an outdoor art project and political protest. Guyton’s historically black McDougall-Hunt neighborhood was deteriorating, so he began painting colored dots on deteriorating houses and attaching salvaged items to them. He worked on the project with neighborhood children and soon transformed an area that used to house criminals and drug dealers into a haven for the community.

 

Today, the two-block area is filled with brightly painted houses, cars, trees and signs that have been converted to constantly evolving sculptures. The entire Heidelberg Project is constructed from salvaged materials, including bikes, televisions sets, tires and stuffed animals.