2B — Thursday, February 16, 2017
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

On Heidelberg Street, there 

exists an oasis. Wedged in 
between 
lines 
of 
relatively 

empty 
streets, 
a 
wild 

conglomeration of discarded 
objects and colorful houses lies 
sprawled over beaten grass. 
Every turn leads to somewhere 
new: 
The 
tucked-away 

basement 
of 
an 
abandoned 

house hides a sea of cast-off 
blue shoes; a series of wood 
clocks frames the path to a vast 
sign proclaiming: “Art is in the 
Eye of the Beholder.”

The 
Heidelberg 
Project 

isn’t pretty. Its many different 
pieces aren’t sculpted with 
neat 
elegance. 
Instead, 
its 

weathered edges gleam with 
chipped paint and authenticity. 
More 
than 
refinement, 
the 

spectacle of the Heidelberg 
Project is contained within its 
history. Every recycled object, 
every broken toy holds a story.

“Let 
me 
share 
a 
little 

something 
with 
you,” 
said 

executive 
director 
Jenenne 

Whitfield warmly as she began 
to introduce the Heidelberg 

Project. Whitfield explained its 
purpose with a bright passion 
that mimicked the animation of 
the street itself.

“We 
describe 
Heidelberg 

as 
a 
funky, 
outdoor 
art 

environment,” she said. “It’s 
been described as a ghetto 
Guggenheim. 
It’s 
been 

described as a playground for 
the imagination.”

And 
a 
playground 
it 
is, 

indeed. 
With 
houses 
like 

the vibrant Polka Dot House 
(officially 
titled 
the 
“New 

White House”) standing near 
structures made of scratched 
records and broken highway 
signs, 
it’s 
a 
space 
where 

boundaries don’t exist.

“It’s been many things to 

many people throughout its 
30-year 
history,” 
Whitfield 

said.

The 
Heidelberg 
Project 

means something different to 
every person who has viewed it. 
But the people who matter the 
most, the people who have been 
affected the most, are those 

surrounding Heidelberg — the 
Detroit community.

“Many of the people that 

visit 
Heidelberg 
talk 
about 

looking at what Tyree has done 
and thinking: ‘My God, if this 
man can do this, what can I do?’ 
” Whitfield said.

More than just a street, more 

than just an outlandish project, 
Heidelberg is an inspiration; 
its effect on the surrounding 
residents is distinctive from the 
experiences of those who drive 
in for a day solely to view the 
street’s infamous chaos.

“People in the community 

who 
have 
grown 
up 
with 

Heidelberg 
have 
now 
this 

creative energy to do other 
things,” Whitfield said.

When seeing the wonder of 

Heidelberg, there is oftentimes 
a 
motivation 
to 
innovate. 

Whitfield detailed the example 
of Phillip Cooley, co-owner of 
Slows Bar BQ in Detroit — a 
restaurant Cooley built with 
the help of friends, reusing 
old pieces in order to build a 
now-thriving small business. 
Cooley 
was 
encouraged 
by 

the Heidelberg Project, the 
way it works from within the 
community in order to improve 
the community, and moved 
to Detroit in order to open a 
restaurant that operates under 
the same notion.

“How many more people 

have been inspired by going 
and seeing and experiencing 
Heidelberg to go and create 
something 
else?” 
Whitfield 

mused.

The reason the Heidelberg 

Project is so influential is 
that it’s so genuine: both in its 
appearance, the way timeworn 
components are never altered 
into 
their 
more 
artificially 

pristine versions, and in its 
origin.

“When Tyree was six or 

seven, his great-grandmother 
… told him that he was going to 
be a very famous, great man,” 
Whitfield said.

Tyree 
Guyton 
and 
his 

grandfather, 
Sam 
Mackey, 

created the Heidelberg Project 
in 1986. Initially, it was started 
only because of a desire to clean 
up the neighborhood. After the 
Detroit riots of the late ’60s 
decimated the area he grew 
up in, Guyton attempted to 
rebuild: Painting bright colors 
on the sides of houses and 
affixing them with recovered 
materials. 

“(Guyton) talked about being 

a child at 12 and witnessing 
the riots and feeling like the 
world was coming to an end,” 
Whitfield said. “So that really 
became the drive in him.”

What is most vital about 

Heidelberg is that it was a 
solution that came from within 
the community, from someone 
who had been directly shaped 
by difficulties that had existed 
in the Heidelberg area. Guyton 
built the Heidelberg Project for 

no reason other than to help 
the neighborhood he grew up 
in. The selfless desire that was 
infused into every aspect of 
the project allowed it to evolve 
into the inclusive installation 
that it is today: a work of art 
that 
welcomes 
visitors 
but 

first and foremost is for the 

surrounding 
community. 

It’s a space for invention and 
innovation, hosting venues for 
neighborhood youth workshops 
and art exhibitions for new 
artists.

When 
people 
outside 
of 

Detroit talk about the city’s 
success, they can only look at 
the big picture: new stadiums 
built 
or 
flashy 
businesses 

constructed 
 — projects that 

are tailored to those living 
outside the scope of the city 
(and predominantly with a 
higher socioeconomic status). 
So caught up in the glamour 
of the prospect of a “new and 
improved” Detroit, many rarely 
notice the repercussions of 
these large-scale developments 
on the people actually living 
within the community; the 
pillars that Detroit rests on. 
The large corporations flocking 
to 
midtown 
or 
downtown 

Detroit oftentimes push into 
the community at the expense 
of residents who have inhabited 
the same area for generations: 
Home prices increase, people 
are 
shoved 
out 
and 
many 

families are forced to relocate.

While these new businesses 

have the power to garner 
widespread 
attention 
for 

Detroit, there is a danger in 
thinking of Detroit as a city that 
needs to be fixed. 

“(Detroit) 
is 
not 
coming 

back because it never went 
anywhere,” 
Whitfield 
said, 

“What I find just fascinating 
is that people are attracted to 
the kind of work that we do and 
want to be near us. But then 
they bring, with them, their 
resources, and that squeezes us 
out. Then they’ll get bored with 
this area, and they’ll go look for 
the next area.”

Detroit 
has 
a 
tireless 

energy. Its tenacity to keep 
persevering was perhaps born 
out of its tumultuous history. 
In the early to mid-1900s, the 
Great Migration initiated a 
large population of African-

Americans to move to Detroit 
from 
the 
southern 
United 

States. Faced with problems 
that stemmed from the city’s 
lack of housing combined with 
harsh 
discrimination 
and 

subsequent segregation, new 
African-American 
residents 

struggled to find a place in a 
city that strove to drive them 
out. Detroit is a city whose past 
has been largely shaped by the 
tension and conflict born out of 
exclusion and ignorance.

Still, no matter how many 

times Detroit appeared to crack 
with the tension fabricated 
by segregation and prejudice, 
it always found a way to keep 
moving forward.

The spirit of Detroit that 

current prospective businesses 
are attracted to lies in this: 
the determination and drive 
manifesting from a history 
of 
hardship. 
However, 
the 

reason so much of this new 
development 
occurs 
at 

the 
detriment 
of 
Detroit’s 

established community, with 
gentrification 
becoming 

increasingly prevalent in recent 
years, is because contenders 
who view the city as outsiders 
don’t see that the main force 
behind 
Detroit’s 
continuous 

persistence has been its people.

The energy of Detroit has 

always been contained within 
its 
inhabitants. 
Businesses 

that enter the city but do not 
recognize the significance of 
Detroit’s intrinsic communities 
can cause a disconnect: the city 
outwardly 
projecting 
strong 

economic advancements that a 
majority of its inhabitants do 
not have access to.

The increasing exclusion of 

the people of Detroit is why 
projects like Heidelberg are 
so imperative, now more than 
ever.

“(Heidelberg) has become a 

representation of everything 
that Detroit is … it represents 
the whole up-from-the-ashes 
concept,” Whitfield said. “The 
fear that I think a lot of people 
have about what is happening 
in Detroit and how people 
are being left out and not 
considered. Well, we say power 
to the people.”

The beauty of the Heidelberg 

Project does not come from its 
physical arrangement of objects, 
but rather from the fact that it is 
an establishment of the people 
and for the people. It works 
directly 
with 
surrounding 

communities in order to form 
an all-encompassing platform 
that encourages imagination 
on a personal level. It has the 
potential to lead to citywide 
economic and infrastructure 
developments that benefit the 
entirety of Detroit’s population, 
not just a small percentage.

Most crucial of all, the 

Heidelberg Project does not 
shut individuals out.

Even Whitfield herself has 

experienced 
gentrification 

at its finest, with her and her 
family currently in the middle 
of the process of leaving a place 
that they had moved into not 
even a decade earlier.

“We’re 
moving 
from 
the 

midtown area, which is now 
being celebrated as one of the 
comeback areas of Detroit, 
along 
with 
downtown,” 

Whitfield 
said. 
“Our 
hope, 

when we moved here eight 
years ago, was that we would 
buy this place. But, in the last 
three years, it doubled and that 
priced us out.”

However, 
Whitfield 
did 

not let these setbacks deter 
her from looking toward the 
unknown with resolve and 
fortitude.

“My attitude has to be: A 

place does not make me, I make 
a place,” Whitfield said. “So 
I’ll go somewhere else, and I’ll 
energize that new space.”

It is her steadfast optimism 

that ensures the future of the 

Heidelberg Project, especially 
considering Guyton is stepping 
down and promoting Whitfield 
to oversee the next saga of the 
Heidelberg: Heidelberg 3.0.

She described Heidelberg 3.0 

as, “an arts organization that is 
offering and opening its doors 
to young people and artists all 
over the world.”

It’s 
an 
exciting 
prospect 

that builds off the original 
Heidelberg Project in order to 
expand its message. Heidelberg 
3.0 hopes to include more young 
artists by giving them a space to 
explore their ideas, going even 
further to immerse art within 
communities of people.

The future of Detroit is in 

projects like Heidelberg; in 
the way it serves to both heal 
and elevate the surrounding 
communities; in the way it 
inspires creativity; and, most 
importantly, in the way it 
continuously, simply, strives to 
represent the people.

SHIMA SADAGHIYANI

Daily Arts Writer

Motor City Guggenheim: Finding 
energy of Detroit on Heidelberg

The Heidelberg 

Project isn’t 

pretty. Its many 
different pieces 
aren’t sculpted 

with neat 
elegance

Home prices 

increase, people 
are shoved out 

and many families 

are forced to 

relocate

Tyree Guyton’s Heidelberg Project emphasizes the power of community to 
liven a city; executive director talks influence and future of the project

MICHIGAN DAILY
MICHIGAN DAILY

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