feature image: Tyree Guyton, 2025.
Submitted
Sheboygan, Wisconsin — Opening September 13, 2025, at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC), Heidelbergology: Is It Art Now? examines the history of the Heidelberg Project with a focus on the wide-ranging practice of its founding artist, Tyree Guyton. Established in 1986, the Heidelberg Project is a multifaceted, immersive transformation of the Detroit neighborhood where Guyton grew up into a hybrid of artistic assemblage, community development, and urban design. Launching ahead of the project’s 40th anniversary in 2026, Heidelbergology presents 10 monumental works from the site alongside more than 50 works from Guyton’s studio practice over the last four decades, including never-before-shown sculptures, paintings, and archival sketches. Many of the relocated site-specific sculptures will be shown for the first time in a formal exhibition setting, bringing them to new audiences and prompting questions of how context shapes perceptions and understandings of art.
“Extending his practice to the everyday world and encompassing community and caretaking, Tyree Guyton’s practice of the Heidelberg Project expands the very notion of what art can be. Relocating these works into the gallery challenges us to reconsider our own assumptions about what and where art is and brings tenets of the project to a new and different audience,” remarks Laura Bickford, collections curator at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
On view through February 15, 2026, the exhibition takes as its premise Guyton’s philosophy of Heidelbergology— “the practice of reintegrating discarded objects and people into the community from which they came”—and resituates foundational works made by this method within a gallery setting, offering new perspectives of the pieces that challenge notions of what constitutes art, where art comes from, and where people go to see it. Though sited, the tenets of Heidelberg, and the ethos of Guyton as an artist, exist well beyond the physical boundaries of the Project. As the largest gallery presentation of Guyton’s oeuvre and history of the Heidelberg Project, Heidelbergology explores how Guyton’s personal experiences and creative direction have transformed the wider neighborhood’s cultural and economic ecosystem, as well as how his own studio practice has converged with, diverged from, and evoked changes in the Project over the years as a separate but interrelated creative force.
Guyton began the Heidelberg Project after attending school, serving in the Army, and returning to Heidelberg Street on Detroit’s east side, where he grew up, to find it in deteriorating condition and deepening poverty. The neighborhood Guyton knew as diverse and working-class over the years became characterized by violence, racism, abandonment, and despair. Deeply affected by the loss of three brothers to the streets, Guyton was encouraged by his grandfather, Sam Mackey, to use artistic expression as a solution to heal and enrich the community. The two began cleaning Heidelberg Street with brooms and paintbrushes along with neighborhood children. From the refuse they collected, Guyton transformed the street into a massive art environment, turning vacant lots and abandoned houses into installations and sculptures. Now internationally recognized for its artistic, social, and political contributions to Detroit, the Heidelberg Project occupies multiple city blocks, employs many long-term community members, and draws tens of thousands of visitors a year.
“People come from across the world to see the Heidelberg Project,” said Tyree Guyton. “What we’ve started, using art as a medicine to heal, recycling not just objects, but the human spirit, is just as important today as it was when I began this journey nearly 40 years ago. I’m honored to bring pieces of my work and the history of Detroit to serve as an inspiration and challenge to all who visit the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.”
Artworks from Heidelberg Street featured in the exhibition underwent an extensive process of relocation and stabilization to ensure their formal integrity prior to entering the gallery. Keyworks on view in the exhibition include:
Noah’s Ark, a boat covered in more than 100 stuffed animals that were crowdsourced from the Sheboygan community—a recurring motif in Guyton’s work, representing displaced yet loved lost objects;
• Faces in the Hood, a series of car hoods repurposed with painted faces, some of which survived the arsons on the Project and still show the effects of the fires;
• Penny Car, a vintage Saab that was formerly a taxi, covered in pennies, both currency and 3D printed;
• The Fiery Furnace, a stove full of painted shoes, another of Guyton’s signature motifs to represent individuals’ need for empathy and understanding; and
• A selection of Sam Mackey’s drawings, an early source of inspiration for Guyton.
Leading into the Heidelberg Project’s 40th anniversary in 2026, Heidelbergology: Is It Art Now? serves as not only a celebration of its artistic legacy but also a powerful reflection on the role of art in social transformation, sparking global conversations on community identity and empowerment, creative placemaking, and the intersection of art and activism. By showcasing the Project’s evolution, impact, and continued relevance, the exhibition offers a unique opportunity to examine how art can address urban challenges, inspire dialogue, and foster healing in communities worldwide. “The Heidelberg Project is one of the most significant public art undertakings of our time, and Tyree Guyton’s vision has profoundly shaped how artists, communities, and cities think about transformation and reclamation. As an institution committed to preserving artist-built environments and collaborating with contemporary artists, JMKAC is proud to bring these iconic works into dialogue with museum audiences. We are honored to share this critical moment in Guyton’s ongoing practice and in the legacy of the Heidelberg Project,” adds Amy Horst, executive director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
About Tyree Guyton
Tyree Guyton is an American Neo-Expressionist artist who is a proponent of graffiti art and urban environmental art. Through his creative practice, Guyton has worked to improve Detroit’s east side, transforming his childhood neighborhood into a living indoor/outdoor art museum known as the Heidelberg Project. Through his art, Guyton has drawn attention to forgotten neighborhoods and spurred discussion and action. Guyton’s art has been featured in the Detroit Institute of Arts, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, among others. His work as an artist has earned him over 18 awards, locally and nationally. Guyton has also been featured in major publications, books, and television shows (including the Oprah Winfrey Show), and he was the subject of the Emmy Award-winning documentary Come Unto Me, The Faces of Tyree Guyton, as well as the book Connecting the Dots, Tyree Guyton’s Heidelberg Project (2007, WSU Press)—a 2008 Michigan Notable Book. Guyton is married and continues to live and work in the City of Detroit.
About the John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Founded in 1967, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) is a nonprofit creative hub that supports the work of contemporary artists through original exhibitions, commissions, residencies, publications, and community programming across visual and performing arts. The only institution in the world that collects artist- built and artist home-based environments, JMKAC is a leading center for the research, preservation, and presentation of artists with wide-ranging practices and backgrounds from academically trained to self-taught and folk traditions, championing long-term relationships with artists and elevating work that has often been overlooked or under-recognized. JMKAC is a vital cultural resource that responds to the needs of its local and regional communities, preserving artistic heritage by uplifting contemporary voices and empowering future generations.
Hours
- Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
- Thursday: 10:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
- Saturday, Sunday: 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Location
John Michael Kohler Arts Center: 608 New York Avenue, Sheboygan, WI 53081
Contact
Emily Shedal, Communications Specialist, JMKAC, EShedal@jmkac.org
