Urban art in Detroit (1): Lincoln Street Art Park

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 recycled products that were found and 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.

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.

Lincoln Street Art Park is one of a growing number of locations in Detroit where art is turning rundown, derelict space into a revitalized community asset. It is located at 5926 Lincoln Street, Detroit, MI, 48208.

Locations for urban art in Detroit

Here are the locations explored in this series about urban art in Detroit:

1. Lincoln Street Art Park (this article)
2. Grand River Creative Corridor
3. The Heidelberg Project
4. Dequindre Cut
5. The Spirit of Detroit

Photographs from Detroit

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