TYREE GUYTON
In 1986, Guyton founded The Heidelberg Project on an abandoned street on Detroit's East Side. The artist transformed a forgotten corner of the city into a vibrant, whimsical installation using found objects and house paint. Today, the project spans two city blocks, with polka-dotted houses and found object installations, with over 250,000 visitors every year. The site, which has been demolished twice by the city of Detroit and subsequently rebuilt, is also a nonprofit organization that provides arts education to children and public programs for visitors. Through the Heidelberg Project, the artist draws attention to the plight of Detroit's forgotten neighborhoods, and spurred discussion and action. Guyton's work is held in collections worldwide including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Studio Museum in Harlem. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the College of Creative Studies in 2009, and recently completed the Laurenz Haus residency in Basel, Switzerland. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Time Magazine, the Boston Globe, and NPR's Morning Edition, among many others. For more information on the project, visit heidelberg.org.Â
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