Remember that Rust Belt to Artist Belt Conference a while back? Now, one level deeper– do you remember the speaker Terry Schwarz or the DL! interview with her? She is the head of Cleveland’s Urban Design Collaborative as part of Kent State and is one of the progressive minds within that organization that works to, among other things, get better use out of under-utilized space throughout the city. Their work is casually inspiring in a lot of ways– how they use vacant lots for organized water flows to control runoff and improve water quality, or just using vacant patches of land for innovative new forms of public art.

Well, Detroit is following suit. Now’s your chance to unleash your ideas for public art on vacant land and have Wayne State pick up the bill for the project. Yep. They just announced a program, aptly titled LOTS of Art!, in conjunction with Art Corps Detroit, that will call for applicants to propose a public art project to be carried out on one of four vacant lots they acquired throughout the city for the purposes of the project (see them all herehere.

It should be noted that if you aren’t a student, alumni, faculty or staff of Wayne State, then you may want to seek out someone with such credentials for your application. Further questions or thoughts can be directed to ArtsCorpsDetroit at 313-309-4120 or artscorpsdetroit@wayne.edu.