Detroit Turns to Tech to Enhance Its Vibrant Art Scene

The city of Detroit’s Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship (ACE) has introduced a new map and smartphone app to highlight the work of local art and artists.

Organizations are increasingly using technology like this to improve art exhibits, as seen at the university level in places like the University of Montana and Indiana State University. And while some cities are using data to tackle the issue of blight in their communities, Detroit is leveraging of the power of art.

Two resulting tools launched in October now help city residents find and learn about the art in their city: a map, which can be found on the ACE website, and an app, created by art technology company CANVS, which now includes information about Detroit artwork and creators. The map is also powered by CANVS technology.
The effort started with a mission to remove graffiti, which the city has tackled through a program called City Walls. The program, first launched in 2017, involves hiring local artists to create murals in the place of graffiti — work that was paid for through the city’s newly established public art fund, explained Rochelle Riley, the city’s director of arts and culture.

“Technology and art have always enhanced each other,” Riley stated. “The worldwide web is a museum; it’s not only an information superhighway, you can sit all day and look up different artists and see amazing work.”

This undertaking, Riley said, was a way to put Detroit on the map of art they should be looking at — whether in person or virtually.

These new tools, which are tied together and provide similar information but through different platforms, allow people to look at a mural, and by using their smartphones or other Internet-enabled devices, they can get access to information about the mural and the artist who created it. Prior to the launch of this tool, Riley said people used to call the city trying to get this information, a question that was often difficult to answer.

According to CANVS co-founder Ralph André, the web environment serves as a sort of testing ground, which can be used to add new features — like the ability to search by a mural’s title or descriptive tags — prior to integrating them into the app.

CANVS 2.0 will be released sometime in 2023, André said, and will come with new features, including a richer search functionality.

“There are a lot of barriers when it comes to the way cities, individuals, organizations, etc., capture the essence of art and how they use art to help drive community growth or tourism or commerce,” André said. “And what we’re doing with CANVS is we’re using technology to help raise awareness, build stronger connections through people, and facilitate more activity around art.”

These tools provide information on over 200 murals in the city, with hundreds more to be added. The map includes a feature that enables people to be “mural hunters,” who can send in their pictures of murals in the city, to be vetted by CANVS and then added to the database.

And this, André said, is a way to “gamify the street art experience” and get people involved that might not otherwise participate.

To further increase involvement, ACE has offered an online meeting to provide information for photographers in the city — both professional and amateur — to help them understand the platform and how to contribute.

The city has also started hosting guided tours to showcase this work within its borders.

While the city was ranked fourth in the nation for street art by USA Today, this initiative aims to help the city meet its goal of ranking first.

Riley noted that despite the challenges that the city has faced in the past, the outlook is positive: “Detroit is fantastic now, and if we can understand that and embrace that, particularly with our creative arts industry, the sky is the limit.”