Street Art Hot Spots in Detroit

Looking for an interesting tour of Detroit 'street art'. Prompted by an article on Detroit street art in Architectural Digest I noticed that Curbed created a google map from which to create your itinerary. View Map >>

Attachment 30556

It's a start.

So far, it only has famous biggies [[Heidelberg, and the Broderick Tower Whales) and very recent stuff. There are a plethora of strange oddities, sculptures, murals, folk art, and retro icons forgotten about. Granted things are not cut and dry LEGO even as the Boston Public Art map, but it doesn't have to be. Cincinnati has one, but it needs updating. Lets hope they add to the one we have here.

As much as I rail on Boston, it did have good culture going for it [[which makes it all the more hard to outright disregard it, until you deal with the poor mentalities, ethics, and communication of the folks, as well as the poor bastardizations of subcultures you cherish.). One of the things that kept me sane there was acquiring disposable cameras [[what would be booze, cigarette, lottery ticket, movie, coffee, and junk food money for most people) and making it an extra curricular activity [[after all was done at the libraries and I was off schedule from work) to get about [[another thing I was lucky to do there-accessibility even to most buildings was a regularly available thing for me in Boston) and take photos. Sometimes I made a game out of it, or sometimes I treated it like some Shamanistic art as if I were either telling myself a story or locking a key memory in with a key icon at a key time. This also gave me a good excuse to travel about and explore areas [[which a.) some Bostonians never did. b.) made many of the lazier mentalities there marvel at how much walking I did. As if I never came from a city where everything is spread out from itself and requires lots of walking anyway.).

What really helped was consulting this interactive art map Boston had.
http://www.publicartboston.com/map/node
Most cities are not that updated to have this. They sure made it an issue to show you where those many "paint boxes" are located [[yet, you really have to sift through a variety of art sites to find the ones scattered throughout Malden, Somerville, and Cambridge). Although you can find those here in Detroit, Bloomington, IN, and Rochester, MN, the "Paint boxes" are as iconic-as well as Mobius strips for some reason- in boxy old Bosstown as the pigs in Cincinnati, the brains in Bloomington, IN, mastodons in Fort Wayne, or the horses in Louisville.-and yup, I do have quite a bit of those boxes on film.

Up-to-date as it may be, it is still limited, for I found lots of crazy out of the way stuff tucked in areas of Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, not to mention ones around and in libraries.

It just wasn't the city of Boston. You had to look up various sites for the ones in Cambridge [[like this interactive one http://www.cambridgema.gov/arts/publ.../publicarttourwhich is also incomplete as it doesn't have a lot of the murals on schools-and almost every school there was progressive enough to have murals or some art on or around it-or the ones on businesses like Trader Joes. Plus I didn't see this sculpture added from around the Galleria Mallhttp://www.panoramio.com/photo/97978414 or this crazy nearby Redcoat underpass muralhttp://flickrhivemind.net/blackmagic...N05/8388928323). or Somerville-or even ones for the various train/subway station stops [[mostly on the Redline), and even that is incompletehttp://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/art_collection/.

Also, the campuses [[and their own libraries) themselves had various art pieces with sites to consult. As if each college there didn't already make you feel like you were visiting a different "temple" in a stupid Zelda Game, UMass on the peninsula overlooking the ragged waters had crazy stuff with this map https://www.umb.edu/in_the_community...s_on_the_point[[and that's not including how odd the inside and walkways of UMass are with the giant fishing lure, the odd ragged tapestry, the Pinecone lamps, folded hands, but I see they got rid of the Ghanese lobster coffin and the Lichtenstein sculpture). Of course, something as technologically savvy as MIT would also have an interactive art map site, as wellhttps://listart.mit.edu/public-art-map.

All examples to consider if Detroit wants to expand and upkeep an art map here.

Here some other public art catalogs from elsewhere:
Rochester, NYhttp://www.rochesterpublicart.com/public_art/
Cincinnati, OH http://www.chrisglass.com/cincinnati...rt/oacmap.html[[older one, since ArtWorks wasn't cutting it. Though they did mention the Pendelton)
Louisville, KY https://www.flickr.com/photos/louisv...7623177820011/[[this Flickr site was better done than the COPA site-though none of the cool bike racks or Gallopalooza horses are mentionedhttp://gallopalooza.com/showcase/).
Madison, WI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...son,_Wisconsin[[more of the permanent items).
LaCrosse, WI http://www.explorelacrosse.com/arts-culture/.
Providence, Rhode Island http://www.arts.ri.gov/publicart/and Brown University https://www.brown.edu/about/public-art/maps[[again, a better example of the interactive art map).
Columbus, INhttp://www.columbus.in.us/columbus/a...ure/public-art.
Toledo, OH http://theartscommission.org/module-...art-collection[[and this interactive map https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer...bAhzE&hl=en_USplus "It's Reigning Frogs! https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer...txKmRKU9Jxpt4U-that's if most of those still exist.)
Syracuse, NY http://syracusepublicart.com/[[not including the Everson).
Ithaca, NY is being stingy and capitalizing on public art big time with this teaser sitehttp://www.ithacamurals.com/murals.html [[even Cornell and the Cornell plantation gardens are skimpy as to what it will depict. Is tourism that much of a protected commodity there? Come on! They got the frickin' gorges and waterfalls-beautiful as they are-isn't that enough of a draw?)
Champaign, IL http://explorecu.org/tours/show/9[[interactive maps including U of Ihttp://explorecu.org/tours/show/2)
Iowa City, IA this Pinterest sitehttps://www.pinterest.com/leighpesto...ty-public-art/ actually got a better hold on the shifting circulation of art [[not much of the tornado sculpture there, but seeing as they host an actual tornado there every 1-2 summers, it's no surprise how the wire sculpture just "disappeared") there along with this sitehttp://www.dailyiowan.com/2013/08/01/Arts/34209.html which captures a lot of the literary-mindedness of the town. [[interactive U of I campus maphttps://maps.facilities.uiowa.edu/fl...Art_On_Campus/)
Bloomington, IN https://bloomington.in.gov/documents...cument_id=5975[[along with the brainshttps://www.pinterest.com/fabrichugg...-s-got-brains/ and Indiana University campushttp://inside.indiana.edu/features/p...n-campus.shtml)
Rochester, MN [[too expansive to list the benches, Loons, boxes, ground paintings, walkway and subway murals sculptures in and around the area, and the art work at St. Mary's and the Mayo-especially the Mayo, which has become more of art gallery than a medical facility-are far from complete in their listings online. Rochester may be lacking in a genuine music scene, but it booms in visual art!).

I list many of these to give you an idea of how some of these sites operate. Many of the better sites are gone, and many towns rotate art pieces [[Quad Cities is a tough one to get a bead on). Some pieces are permanent and become iconic [[which I like for a city), but it doesn't hurt to have others rotate.

Not exactly the same but similar is the DIA's Inside|Out program.

• Detroit Institute of Arts - DIA - Inside|Out Program Video

Here is one of my favorites...along Grand RiverAttachment 30584