Heidelberg Project to be Dismantled/Morphed, Gradually

Plans have been announced to dismantle the Heidelberg Project, although in part or whole is not clear. If you read Mark Stryker's article in the Freep, the direction is vague.

This is understandable as some of the grander moves mentioned, like moving the Polka Dot house to a museum would take considerable negotiations.

The feeling I took away from the article is that Tyree Guyton is retiring and cashing out. I can understand that and I think he deserves a jack pot for all he has done. Payment in the arts is slim and often late, many times posthumously to the heirs. His project has been like a website, free but costly and surviving on uncertain donations, grants and sales. He has international acclaim and collectors and museums are placing his work in their collections. Time to benefit.

He seems determined that the institution of the Heidelberg Project will continue with arts and community activities seemingly morphed on the same site. I get he feeling he is standing down for a more private artist life.

Conflicted feelings.

His house-his rules. Right?

Many times artists have flexed their creative rights by "burning down the house" [[Crumb killed off Fritz the Cat, I got sick of friends only seeing me good for one thing when I had other unrequited dreams, so I completely destroyed some works of mine and would urge others who own some of mine to do the same.).

Yet, I have strong feelings [[and memories) for the Heidelberg. I can't stand to see another thing I value in Detroit taken away. I wish he would reconsider and take into account the importance of what he did and how it touches and affects others.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lowell

Plans have been announced to dismantle the Heidelberg Project, although in part or whole is not clear. If you read Mark Stryker's article in the Freep, the direction is vague.

This is understandable as some of the grander moves mentioned, like moving the Polka Dot house to a museum would take considerable negotiations.

The feeling I took away from the article is that Tyree Guyton is retiring and cashing out. I can understand that and I think he deserves a jack pot for all he has done. Payment in the arts is slim and often late, many times posthumously to the heirs. His project has been like a website, free but costly and surviving on uncertain donations, grants and sales. He has international acclaim and collectors and museums are placing his work in their collections. Time to benefit.

He seems determined that the institution of the Heidelberg Project will continue with arts and community activities seemingly morphed on the same site. I get he feeling he is standing down for a more private artist life.

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Regardless of how one feels about the project and the Mr. Guyton, I think repurposing of the area into an artist's colony is an excellent idea.
On the other hand I have bottle on champagne on ice to toast when the "project" is finally removed.

I think it's sad but good for a few reasons.

1 - There's only so long you can drag on that kind of thing. The "cashing out" started a while ago and the thing is practically a tourist trap. 100 years from now are we supposed to be flying over it in our jetson cars?

2 - It's not happening yet, but it's location next to elmwood park, gratiot, and eastern market, and proximity to downtown, means that if Detroit stays on its current path there's going to be development around there. Are you going to form a ghetto preservation district to keep the development out of sight? Are you going to have a weird multiple-way conflict between the outsider developers, the outsider artist/preservationists, and the locals? Especially considering how the project started it would be really silly for there to be a fight over the revitalization of the neighborhood.


A new art oriented development initiated by them would have the potential to balance all of those forces harmoniously.

An art colony/center could be the core. They could run art programs at their own facility, and also in conjunction with the elementary school down the street and King High School which covers that area. There could also be a broader community groups component to the center, since Gleaners Community Food Bank and some other places are nearby.

For auxiliary developments they could team up with private developers and the city to have really affordable and inclusive housing. They can hire the right architects who share their values and are capable of designing buildings in accordance with those principles.

On the commercial side of things the developments could include spaces where local business could operate, maybe including some low cost shared office spaces, and other things which reduce the barriers to entering business. [[iirc when asked about what Detroit's kids wanted to be when they grew up, "business" was #2 after sports star)

There's a lot of ways it could work out really well, and with the fame of the project they could probably get a lot of cooperation for it.