Inside Detroit’s Most Unexpected Museum—and the Neighborhood Around It

Multidisciplinary artist and cultural historian Olayami Dabls is a true Detroit icon. His immersive MBAD African Bead Museum, with its campus of murals and installations in Detroit’s NW Goldberg neighborhood, is a reason in itself to visit the city.

The 2022 Kresge Eminent Artist says it’s the mixture of art for art’s sake and Detroit’s highly social culture that quietly enchants visitors. Today, there “is more of a friendly movement, more of an engagement, more of getting people to dance, visit galleries, communicate … visitors are coming here just to see the art, artisans, and entertainers,” he says. “All of that is in full bloom.”

Dabls is core to the creative spark that defines contemporary Detroit. After arriving from the South in “an entirely different America during the civil rights era,” he quickly recognized Detroit as a place where he could become whatever he wanted to be. “I was able to bring an ideal into reality that did not exist here,” he says.

Courtesy of Visit Detroit/Gerard and Belevender

Following several years of honing his art practice, he became the first curator and artist-in-residence of what is now the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, producing landmark works including The Civil Rights Decade during his 15-year tenure. For his next act, Dabls began creating the MBAD Museum in 1994, and any exploration of NW Goldberg and beyond should begin there.

Visit the MBAD African Bead Museum

Courtesy of MBAD African Bead Museum

Putting African-centered art on a huge scale, MBAD’s block-long campus encompasses a bead gallery and shop, the 150-foot African Language Wall, a mosaic N’kisi House, a multipart outdoor sculpture, Iron Teaching Rocks How to Rust (an installation of rebar, school desks, mirrors, and other found objects that explores African American history), and much more. Stroll the grounds at your own pace or join a staff-guided tour to fully experience the powerful storytelling for which Dabls is known.

Relax in Bishop Park

Consider timing your visit with the pleasant warmth of early autumn, when crowds thin and locals come out to play. After exploring MBAD, Dabls suggests walking a couple blocks east to Bishop Park to enjoy weekend entertainment, such as the Kickball Classic, held at the park during the third weekend of each September.

Follow the Boulevard

Courtesy of Visit Detroit

Dabls says you can’t fully appreciate Detroit until you explore the art and people along key arteries. MBAD and Bishop Park form an ideal jumping-off point for one of the city’s most notable thoroughfares, West Grand Boulevard. Residents know it as simply “the Boulevard.” Tune into WDET’s The Boulevard radio show with Detroit music legend Waajeed for a techno and house soundtrack on Wednesdays and the early hours of Sunday mornings.

Cruising east, you’ll pass the Motown Museum campus, which is undergoing a $75 million expansion slated to open in 2027. A few blocks away, take a moment to step into the Fisher Building and see architect Albert Kahn’s art deco masterpiece, a National Historic Landmark known as “Detroit’s largest art object.” The lobby is a three-story fantasia of murals, marble, mosaic, and gleaming brass, with one-of-a-kind retail experiences, including vintage, size-inclusive glamour at the Peacock Room.

Photo by Sylvia Jarrus/Afar

The Boulevard soon meets Detroit’s central avenue, Woodward—home to the world’s first mile of concrete highway, poured in 1909. “You’re lucky there,” Dabls says, because you have two of his favorite African restaurants within a block of each other. Founded by refugees from Burundi, Baobab Fare is a paragon of East African cuisine, nominated for a 2024 James Beard Award. Yum Village features Afro-Caribbean fare with 85 percent of the ingredients sourced locally.

Once sated, head down Woodward to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, which recently hosted a career-spanning retrospective of Dabls’ work called Detroit Cosmologies. He also recommends taking in the city’s new architecture along the way. Farther toward downtown, you can visit the newly built Hudson’s Detroit building to view the permanent installation of his mural, All Remains in View.

See Dabls’ murals along Grand River Avenue

Those murals are part of what the artist means when he says Detroit is full of “places that encourage people to be more friendly and engage with each other. That may be the result of having art in the background.”

The MBAD Museum also marks the start of an interesting alternative route that explores more of Dabls’ public art. Instead of the Boulevard, head down Grand River Avenue one mile to Warren Avenue to see his Beads mural on the north wall and his Snake mural on the south wall.

He says, “You could actually visit Detroit now [only] to look at art and say, ‘I had a nice time’ because the art carries the energy … the city itself is treasure.”