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African Bead Museum founder Dabls is 2022 Kresge Eminent Artist
If you have never visited Dabls’ shattered-mirror-covered MBAD African Bead Museum complex, that sprawls along Grand River below W. Grand Blvd., you are in for a treat. Olayami Dabls, its creator and founder, is well deserving of the honor of being this years Kresge Eminent Artist Award.
It is the Westside equivalent of the Heidelberg Project with adjacent grounds filled with colorful, beautiful and fascinating sculptural works. Since it occupies abandoned land between Grand River and the I-696 it has faced none of the controversy Heidelberg has.
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"Dabls, described by Kresge as “a storyteller with a paintbrush and a street-corner vision,” has been working for about 50 years. The museum is part of two city blocks Dabls once called “a complete dumping ground.” He has transformed the area at the intersection of Grand River Avenue and Grand Boulevard into a museum, sculpture garden and global tourist attraction as well as a tool for educating others on African culture.
"With a career of more than 45 years in Detroit, Dabls has created 15,000-plus pieces of art, including paintings, murals, installations, jewelry and sculptures, and has written or illustrated three books. He is also the first Kresge Eminent Artist to have also won a Kresge Artist Fellowship, a $25,000 award given annually."
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