But Taylor had an agenda. He also wanted to take his guest to the Heidelberg Project in Detroit, a neighborhood art installation that Bunch had never heard of. Taylor is on the board of directors for the organization. Bunch had never seen anything like it β which makes sense, since the project is the first of its kind, created in by Detroit native Tyree Guyton. Guyton wanted to respond to the blight in his neighborhood by reorganizing the landscape to suit his own artistic vision β an enterprise that has since become a landmark of the Detroit art scene.
The project, which draws an estimated , visitors a year, consists of found objects and discarded items that have been arranged around or affixed to some properties on nearly two blocks around Heidelberg Street. The Heidelberg Project announced Monday that it will begin a process of dismantling some of its key pieces as it morphs into a new project β Heidelberg 3.
According to a statement released by the organization, four of the houses will remain intact while other parts of the project will be dispersed among various museums and galleries throughout the city and nationwide.
Guyton wrote in a press release that the project had run its course in its current form. Family Gallery. Jenenne and Tyree are hearing firsthand how other people are reacting to the news. Johnston said she had heard rumors about the closing a few months back, but when the news broke she was shocked and heartbroken. Taylor, who has taught Communication Studies and Museum Studies at the University for the past 15 years, said the Heidelberg Project has been prominently featured in his classes in the past.
For Taylor, the Heidelberg Project was a way to get students out of the classroom to engage with a complex art installation, one that could not be fully understood out of the context of its environment. The archives β a collection of printed materials which include the drawings and scale models the artist made while planning the project β are slated to be housed at the Archives of American Arts, a free-standing organization located at the Smithsonian. We have drawings of what he wanted the houses to look like, he made three-dimensional models of how he wanted them to look.
