Turning Neighborhood Junk Into Neighborhood Art

What do you do with all that accumulated junk in the attic, the basement, the garage, the barn, and the yard? Yard sale, you say? Or, you could turn all that unwanted junk into a work of art.

That’s what artist Tyree Guyton did. He was sick and tired of all the garbage and junk strewn all through his neighborhood on Heidelberg Street in Detroit. He grew up on that street, moved away for a few years and returned, only to discover the deterioration and decay of his former childhood neighborhood.

In 1986, Tyree and his grandfather began cleaning up the area’s empty lots where people were using the properties as dumps. After many hours of diligent work, they looked around and realized “there’s too much stuff!” and knew it would cost wayyy beyond their budget to have it all removed. So what did they do?

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Tyree came up with a plan he called the ‘Heidelberg Project’ as a way to utilize all the junk and, at the same time, raise awareness of the deplorable conditions of Detroit’s inner-city neighborhoods. With help from some of the neighborhood youths, the vacant lots and abandoned houses became adorned with all the refuse, junk, and debris, transformed into works of avant-garde-type artwork.

At first, powers-that-be at the City of Detroit ordered Tyree to knock it off and get rid of all that crap in the yards. Tyree forged ahead, despite the city’s wishes, and added more ‘inner-city’ artwork to his street project. It eventually grew to fill two neighborhood blocks with mixed feelings from residents: some loved the idea, while others weren’t happy with the attention the street was getting.

In November 1991 Mayor Coleman Young ordered three of the “art” houses demolished. In 1999 Mayor Dennis Archer also ordered three more of Tyree’s houses to be torn down. In 2013 and 2015 an arsonist – or arsonists – burned down 12 of Tyree’s artistic houses.

Undaunted, the Heidelberg Project is still promoting urban and inner-city revitalization with a shop and tours through the neighborhood, in-school and after school arts education, an artist-in-residence program, a new studio and artist gallery, neighborhood events, and youth programs.

Through his efforts, Tyree has deservedly won a number of awards.