Frank the Dino, Lincoln Street Art Park, Detroit.
Photograph: © J. Ashley Nixon

Frank the Dino watches over a small urban art park on Lincoln Street in Detroit. His roots go back, not into fossils but to a range of plastics eventually derived from those fossils- and metals- all found and recycled products that were gathered up during site cleaning. Years ago, the factory at his rear made Lincoln automobiles. Today it is becoming something of a tourist attraction and a place for school children to experience outdoor urban ecology and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and maths) under the direction of Green Living Science.

Lincoln Street Art Park, Detroit
Photograph: © J. Ashley Nixon

The park was established in 2011 by Recycle Here! and Holden Street Recycling Center founder Matthew Naimi. He could have gone one of two ways: fence it all off, keep it safe; or turn it open for people to share? He chose the latter and created an “untraditional sculpture park” that explores the meeting point between the natural world and the urban world.

Mural underway next to Lincoln Street Art Park, Detroit
Photograph: © J. Ashley Nixon

One of a growing number of locations in Detroit where art is turning rundown, derelict space into a revitalized community asset.

Lincoln Street Art Park is located at 5926 Lincoln Street, Detroit MI, 48208

For more images of Detroit, please visit J. Ashley Nixon Photography