Apr 9, 2025 - Culture

Glass memorial at MOCAD explores gun violence

Annalise Frank

Glass brick homes in an art exhibition contain small mementos in about half of the bricks. — The Gun Violence Memorial Project exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston. Photo: Mel Taing courtesy of MOCAD and the Gun Violence Memorial Project

A traveling tribute to gun violence victims built with shoes, mementos and glass is coming to Detroit.

The big picture: The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is hosting the Gun Violence Memorial Project May 2 through Aug. 10.

It educates viewers while sharing stories of people who have lost loved ones to gun violence.

State of play: The exhibition uses sculpture to represent the magnitude of loss, as well as each loss's tangible, individual impact. Four houses are made of 700 bricks each — the average weekly number of deaths from gun violence in the U.S. in 2019, the year the memorial project began in Chicago.

Iterations were staged in Washington, D.C., and Boston before coming to Detroit, a city with high gun violence rates historically that has been seeking alternative solutions to reduce violent crime.

Zoom in: Small, meaningful mementos from the people who died, like baby shoes or tassels from a school graduation, are housed inside these bricks behind translucent glass. Names, year of birth and year of death are also displayed.

What's next: The memorial continues to grow. Locals are invited to add to the project at MOCAD at an event June 21. Visit the website for more details.

If you go: MOCAD is at 4454 Woodward Ave. in Detroit. Admission is $12.

Hours are 11am-5pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, and 11am-8pm Thursday and Friday.

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Glass memorial at MOCAD explores gun violence

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