Detroit City Walls – SpaceLab Detroit

City Walls Detroit has released the first wave of open calls for this summer with over $650,000 available for the Detroit arts community! Visit the City Walls website and download the artist packet for the project or projects you’re interested in. Pay close attention to the Vision Statement as developed by the community to inspire your vision for these spaces.

4 Calls Open Now

Godfrey Hotel
Deadline to apply: March 19, 2023
City Walls Detroit together with the Godfrey Hotel, is seeking artists (or collaborative teams) to create two new murals on the Godfrey Hotel.

Community Vision Statement: The Godfrey Hotel and The Corktown Community have collaborated to discover common themes and inspiration for the upcoming mural(s) that will be placed on The Godfrey Hotel in Spring/Summer 2023. According to the Detroit Historical Society, Corktown is the oldest existing neighborhood in The City of Detroit and was a welcoming point for waves of immigrants who have generations of families… Download the Artist Packet and Apply >

DTE Corktown Substation Mural Project
Deadline to apply: March 19, 2023

Community Vision Statement: The Corktown Community and City Walls Detroit have collaborated to discover common themes and inspiration for the upcoming mural. According to the Detroit Historical Society, Corktown is the oldest existing neighborhood in The City of The DTE Mural project seeks to highlight the tightknit Corktown Community bonds. Residents of the oldest neighborhood in Detroit share a familiarity with each other, with baseball, with parades… Download the Artist Packet and Apply >

Stein Park Mural Project
Deadline to apply: March 19, 2023

City Walls Detroit together with the Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance CDC (CRCAA), is seeking artists (or collaborative teams) to create a new mural in Stein Park in the Warrendale/Cody Rouge area on the West Warren corridor. This project will be executed in the service of promoting the City of Detroit as a vibrant community. The murals theme is based and derived from a place of civic pride and it strives to have a deep connection with residents. Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance CDC has been serving this area for over ten years… Download the Artist Packet and Apply >

Show Love: The Detroit Way
Deadline to apply: March 19, 2023
The City of Detroit has a vision for neighbors to feel connected to each other, to foster a sense of belonging, and have a collective say for what happens in their neighborhoods.

Vision Statement: As we have learned through the pandemic outdoor public spaces are our most important spaces. Even when we couldn’t be with each other we could be outside. It’s now more important than ever to ensure our public spaces are healthy, safe, inviting, and empowering… Download the Artist Packet and Apply >

Learn More About City Walls

Mural at header by Muralmatics

The City of Detroit General Services Department – Parks and Recreation Division and SpaceLab Detroit (with partner H&P Protection Services) celebrated Detroit City Walls Artists and the work they created to beautify the city’s neighborhoods and rec centers.

The City Walls program launched in the Summer of 2017. The initiative integrates a multifaceted approach to enhancing public space by focusing on an essential urban element: the city wall. The goals of the program are 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.

At the showcase, artists exhibited and offered additional work for sale at the former workspace of late artist, muralist, and sculptor Charles McGee November 18th and 19th. Now named Design Studio 6, the studio, creative event space, gallery and retail shop is owned by April McGee Flournoy, McGee’s daughter. Mr. McGee was a pioneer of Detroit’s Black art culture from the 1950s through 2021. In 2017 Marygrove College designated the area as the Charles McGee Community Commons.

See work below and click through to see additional art available for purchase and contact information for each artist. Art makes perfect holiday gifts!