what should be on it — art + justice, michigan
The Radar
Curated, not scraped: news our members should have on their radar — Michigan's art world on one side, Michigan's justice system on the other. Every link goes to the original outlet; the summaries are ours.
🎨 Art, Michigan
5 storiesBridgeDetroit · 2026-06-18
A summer of art: Check out these exhibits at Detroit's cultural institutions
A guide to summer 2026 shows across Detroit, including Olayami Dabls' first career retrospective at MOCAD, fiber artist Carole Harris' Detroit River work, the Wright Museum's 60th-anniversary 'Luminosity' survey of Black Detroit art, and Arab diaspora women artists at the Detroit Historical Museum. A practical see-this-now list for members planning gallery visits or looking at which institutions are showing community-rooted Detroit artists.
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Detroit Art Review · 2026-06-01
Susan Yamasaki @ Muskegon Museum of Art
Ron Scott reviews Susan Yamasaki's birch-bark-and-gold-leaf panels in 'Material World: Ten Women' at the Muskegon Museum of Art, work built from decomposing bark gathered in Northern Michigan forests. A reminder that Michigan's exhibition ecosystem extends well beyond Detroit — and that work made from humble, salvaged materials is being taken seriously in the state's museums.
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BridgeDetroit / One Detroit · 2026-04-10
A conversation with Tyree Guyton, the Detroit-born artist known for creating The Heidelberg Project
Tyree Guyton, named the 2026 Kresge Eminent Artist, reflects on 40 years of The Heidelberg Project as its complete archive heads to Wayne State's Reuther Library. Guyton's career is a blueprint for Linkage members: a self-directed Detroit artist who turned neighborhood reclamation into internationally recognized public art, with Kresge's honor showing the institutional support available to Detroit artists.
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BridgeDetroit · 2026-03-24
Michigan prison art program helps inmates find voice — and hope
The University of Michigan's Prison Creative Arts Project marked 30 years with an exhibition of more than 800 artworks by incarcerated Michigan artists, with participants describing how the weekly theater, writing, and visual-arts workshops helped them process trauma and rebuild identity. PCAP is one of the closest peer programs to Linkage's own mission, and its annual show is a key venue for members' work and community connections.
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Hyperallergic · 2026-02-23
Detroit Institute of Arts Reinstalls African American Galleries at the Heart of the Museum
For the first time since 2007 the DIA has reinstalled its African American galleries, with 'Reimagine African American Art' tracing nearly two centuries of work from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil Rights era. Free for tri-county residents, it's a major statement about whose work belongs at the center of Michigan's flagship museum — and worth a visit for any member studying how Black Detroit artists get canonized.
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⚖️ Justice, Michigan
6 storiesMichigan Advance · 2026-07-02
MDOC reports fourth death at Women's Huron Valley prison in under two months
Dalephenia Jones, 62, is the fourth woman to die since mid-May at Women's Huron Valley, Michigan's only women's prison, prompting Rep. Debbie Dingell to demand answers from Gov. Whitmer about medical care and facility conditions. For members with loved ones or community inside Huron Valley, this is the story to watch — MDOC has promised investigations, and legislative oversight pressure is building.
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Michigan Advance · 2026-06-05
Proposed Michigan prison diversion program for drug offenses hopes to end re-arrest cycles
House Bill 5453, sponsored by Rep. Sarah Lightner (R-Springport), would create a diversion program routing people suspected of drug-related crimes toward treatment instead of prison, with backing from addiction advocates and a retired police captain. Bipartisan diversion legislation moving through the House Judiciary Committee could keep community members out of the incarceration cycle entirely — worth tracking as it advances.
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Bridge Michigan · 2026-05-22
Michigan prison sentences are growing. Revived commission to consider reforms
Michigan's Sentencing Commission has reconvened for the first time in nearly 30 years to study why prison terms have grown 30% since 2014 and why sentences vary so widely by county. The commission's data-driven recommendations could reshape sentencing guidelines statewide — the most consequential structural reform process in Michigan criminal justice right now.
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Prison Journalism Project · 2026-05-21
Sentenced to Life at 19, He Now Preaches Inside a Michigan Prison
Incarcerated Michigan writer Christopher Dankovich profiles Darius Huntington, who arrived at Thumb Correctional barely able to read at 19 and now leads its Protestant services after teaching himself through scripture. Journalism written from inside Michigan's prisons, by someone living it — the kind of first-person storytelling and transformation narrative at the heart of Linkage's community.
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Bridge Michigan · 2026-04-13
Nearly 1.6M criminal records cleared under Michigan 'clean slate' law
Three years into automatic expungement, Michigan has cleared nearly 1.6 million convictions — misdemeanors after seven years, eligible felonies after ten — removing barriers to jobs and housing. Many Linkage members may already have records cleared without knowing it, or be approaching eligibility; the article explains what qualifies and how to check your status.
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Prison Journalism Project · 2025-06-17
Michigan Is Turning an Entire Prison Into a College Campus
Michigan allocated $3.9 million to convert a warehouse at Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer into a secure college campus serving over 1,000 incarcerated students, with classes beginning in 2026 — reported by an incarcerated writer at the facility. Education access inside is expanding fast in Michigan, opening degrees and creative coursework to people who will return home to our communities.
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Inspired by outlets like the Prison Journalism Project — journalism by people who've lived it. Members: if you want to write for the Radar, that's exactly the kind of byline we want here.