From blight to beauty: Detroit City Walls artists represent community in 200 murals

DETROIT, Mich. (FOX 2) - Detroit's City Walls program is celebrating the installation of its 200th mural on Tuesday, as the city's blight is being turned into beauty.

In 2022, USA Today named Detroit fourth-best city in the country for street art, but the mural program hopes to push the city to No.1.

The City Walls program began in 2017 to "highlight the values and the identity of the communities where art work is being created, empower Detroit artists, and to provide a positive cost benefit to the public via art versus the cost of blight remediation," according to the city.  Detroit celebrated its 100th mural in 2021, and now it is time to celebrate the 200th.

Artists work closely with community members to make these murals come to life.

"I spent about a month taking pictures and making different compositions, preparing the wall, and then I spent six weeks painting it," said local artist Nicole MacDonald, who grew up in the Jefferson Chalmers area and wanted to highlight the people making a difference here. "Each person that I painted on this wall lived very close to this wall –live in this area– and they have worked tirelessly to better this area, to better the land."

One life-long Detroiter represented is Wayne Curtis; he served in Vietnam, became a Black Panther, and is now a community activist.

"I think it's really important to honor people who have been here and who have made a contribution and a sacrifice," MacDonald continued.

This year, the City Walls initiative invested nearly one million dollars into the Detroit arts community and local artists, said the program manager, Bethany Howard.

"Blight is always something that we talk about, but beautification is something that really takes the city to the next level," said Kenyetta Campbell with Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance.