In 1986, when artist Tyree Guyton returned to his home around Heidelberg Street, he was astonished at how the surrounding neighborhood deteriorated after the civil rights riots of 1967. The Heidelberg Project is in part a political protest that started with painting a series of houses on the street with bright dots of many colors and attaching salvaged items to the houses. It was a constantly evolving work that transformed a hard-core inner city neighborhood where people were afraid to walk, even in daytime, into one in which neighbors took pride and where visitors were many and welcomed.
The Heidelberg Project
Heidelberg St. in Detroit, MI
heidelberg.org