East Canfield Art Park: a sculpture that also reads the air
DETROIT. A sculpture on Detroit's east side called New Forest, Ancient Thrones doubles as an air quality monitor. Artist Jordan Weber built the piece, shaped after West African and Madagascarian royal crowns, with solar-powered sensors that display real-time EPA air quality readings as colored light. It went up in East Canfield Art Park in May 2024.
The project came out of the Canfield Consortium, led by sisters Kim and Rhonda Theus, working with Sidewalk Detroit and Weber after neighbors near the Stellantis plant reported headaches and asthma flare-ups. Henry Ford Health has since added monitors inside nearby homes. A second phase, called the Remediation Forest, is planned next: an elevated walkway and outdoor classroom among the trees. Planet Detroit ran a picnic tour of the park on June 20.
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