Artist seeks to improve reputation of 'junk art'

DETROIT -- Tyree Guyton rescued stuffed animals, sneakers and battered appliances from alleys and street corners, giving them a permanent home on the trees, houses and vacant lots of his outdoor art gallery.\nTwo attempted demolitions, three city administrations and 20 years later, Guyton's two-block project on Heidelberg Street still stands in the midst of an inner-city neighborhood plagued by blight. Now Guyton has plans to rejuvenate the community again.\nHe wants to renovate the abandoned homes that bear his colorful unorthodox polka dot art to offer an outlet for businesses, community events and visiting artists. Many of the houses that once stood on that block have since been leveled, leaving behind vacant lots that Guyton has covered with various items, including vacuum cleaners and painted car hoods.\n"I believe, looking back at 20 years, that I was given a vision," says Guyton, 50, who grew up on Heidelberg Street, once a home for drug dealers and prostitutes. "But also I saw a neighborhood that was dying. It was in trouble, and the people were in trouble, and I came up with a solution."\nNot everyone is excited about the project's survival. Some have referred to it as "trash" or "junk art."\nThe Detroit City Council opposed the project, saying that it violated a host of city ordinances. Concerns were raised about dangerous buildings, health violations and the lack of boundaries for the project.\nIn 1991, the city ordered the demolition of four houses that Guyton had decorated. Guyton remembers that day vividly and says it felt like his whole world had ended. He says the city took away 80 percent of the project. Six years later, 45 percent of the project fell to a city demolition effort.\nHundreds of thousands of people from around the world have viewed the project since its inception in 1986, says Guyton's wife, Jenenne Whitfield. As the executive director of the project, she boasts that the site is one of the most visited attractions in Detroit and has a guest book to prove it. On one day, visitors came from Jerusalem, Michigan, Indiana, Italy and Ireland and signed their names.\n"I had no inkling that it was going to grow into a machine," Guyton says while sitting on the porch of his mother's house, known as the Polka Dot House or Dotty Wotty House. It was the first house he painted with polka dots.\nHis polka dot artwork has attracted a cult following with colorful polka dots popping up around the city, from trash cans to sculptures. And his work has been displayed in countries including Brazil, Ecuador, Germany and Australia.\nAs a part of his Australia effort, Guyton sent shoes painted by young Detroiters to Sydney with notes inside. In turn, Guyton arranged for Australian children to prepare shoes and notes for Detroit.\nThe project, a nonprofit community arts organization, also has three children's programs: Art in da Hood, Connecting the Dots and the Bunche Elementary School Project. His most recent installation, affectionately called "Party Animal," is a dilapidated home covered with stuffed animals. The once popular party spot might also become the first home to serve as an office for a business.\nBrogan & Partners, a marketing and public relations agency, has plans to rent office space at the house, though no time has been set. "For 14 years, we've tried to participate in the revival of downtown Detroit," said Marcie Brogan, the company's chief executive. "Now I think the next step is for businesses to go into neighborhoods because that's where the real revitalization is needed."\nBrogan said the neighborhood is a perfect fit for her company.\n"He (Guyton) energizes the neighborhood through art," says Brogan, whose company has worked with Guyton in the past. "For me, it feels great because we're a creative business. We use art in our business and to be in an environment that celebrates art will help us."\nBrogan says the space will be a working office that will be staffed with a few people and primarily used for board and partner meetings.\nWhitfield says they hope to cover a house with more than 800,000 pennies and use the space to work with children. By making the house functional inside as well as interesting on the outside can serve as a catalyst for others who are considering development in the neighborhood, she says.\nKurt Dewhurst, director of the Michigan State University Museum and curator of folk arts, says Guyton's brainchild has been a very important project for the city.\n"It's brought national and international attention to Detroit," Dewhurst says. "Guyton has been able to find a way to make people look at the world differently. It's a very powerful and impressive vision of seeing beauty in different ways. ... It's all about being open."\nHe said the project has inspired many artists and has made its way into museum collections across the world, including the Detroit Institute of Arts.\n"There was a sense that it was ephemeral, but in fact it's taken on a life of its own and become an important space as well as an artistic exhibit," Dewhurst says. "When you take castoff items and make it into art, it can be inspiring. I think it's definitely something we should be celebrating"