Riches of Detroit | Detroit, MI | 1999-2003

In 1999 Ward and colleague Deborah Grotdfelt (co-founder of Project Row Houses, Houston) were invited to present a lecture on community-sited projects at the Architecture of Resistance symposium organized by the University of Detroit's School of Architecture and the International Center for Urban Ecology. This presentation led to an invitation from the Katherine Ferguson High School for Young Mothers and Their Children, in partnership with the Bogg Labor Center, to undertake a major redevelopment project across the street from their school. Ward and Grotdfelt turned a series of abandoned houses into emergency shelters and a community-gathering center, and transformed the adjacent lots into an ArtPark. The park, titled Riches of Detroit, featured an elongated fire pit and series of benches surrounded by sand, which community members called 'the beach.'

The Katherine Ferguson High School for Young Mothers and Their Children was situated on a four-acre school site, where Paul Weertz from the Math and Science Program had initiated an animal husbandry program and taught the young mothers to grow crops and raise animals such as rabbits, ducks, chickens and bees. Being across the street from one another, the Weertz's agricultural center and the Riches of Detroit ArtPark supported one another with shared values and reciprocal programming.

Though Ward and Grotdfelt's direct involvement ended in 2003, the park continues to provide a destination for community gathering and programs.

Community Programs

the site

"the beach"

"the beach" gathering space

planting raised beds

planted raised beds

building "the grotto" shaded gathering area

building "the grotto"

"the frog" picnic table

detail of "the frog" picnic table

seating

offerings to the wind

rehabilitating the emergency housing

view of Detroit

community concert

painting class

graffiti mural program

Grace Lee Boggs birthday celebration

reading at "the beach"

prayer flag workshop

hanging the prayer flags

prayer flag

offerings to the wind

words to the wind

Grace Lee Boggs teaching a community organizing class

intergenerational art class

ProjecT Participants

EXHIBITION: Artists Take on Detroit

Artists Take on Detroit was a group exhibition organized by the Art Institute of Detroit from 2001-2002. The exhibition brought together artists whose work took up the city as subject. Ward and Grotfelt's installation, "Riches of Detroit," translated the many activities of the ArtPark into an inhabitable gallery installation.

Riches of Detroit was located at 1234 Main St., Detroit, MI 90000