After it receives city and state approval, this unnamed sculpture by James Kaye will be installed in the median on Woodward Avenue.
By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published April 7, 2026
FERNDALE — A new piece of public art is being donated to the city of Ferndale and will be located in the Woodward Avenue median.
At its March 23 meeting, Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Jennie Beeker gave a presentation to the Ferndale City Council about the donation of the new sculpture.
The piece is being donated to the city by James Kaye, a Huntington Woods resident. The proposed placement for the art piece is in the Woodward median south of Nine Mile Road near the turnaround for West Troy Street.
“(Kaye) works in a lot of different mediums, and I think that that’s pretty representative of Ferndale,” Beeker told the Woodward Talk. “He has a big range of work with paints that people use in his private business. He does some really impressive ceramic work that has been displayed in galleries here. … I think that that kind of speaks to how people are really multifaceted in Ferndale.”
Talk of the sculpture dates back to last year. Kaye said he was thinking about what city he really wanted to have a piece in that he felt connected with. Around that time, he worked on something for Anita’s Kitchen, which is how he met with Beeker and Sommer Realy, of the DDA.
“They were so art forward,” he said. “I just thought it was the coolest thing. So, they were as passionate about it as I was.”
“I thought, well, if I’m going to do a sculpture, I’m going to do one for a city that I feel connected with and a city that’s going to feel proud to have my work,” he said.
Kaye likes “tubular style” with his art, as it’s something that he feels connects him with Detroit, where his studio is located.
While he was talking about the project with Beeker and Realy, it led to a discussion about Woodward Avenue, the birth of Woodward, its median and the “Michigan left” turnarounds, which inspired his design for the sculpture.
“They started to show me old pictures of how that median area started to develop,” he said. “So, then I just did some more sketches — kind of went based off of how we felt.”
As the art is being donated, the only costs for the project would be for engineering and installation, which the DDA estimates to be between $1,500 to $3,000. Kaye also wants to get the community involved to help name the sculpture at some point in the future.
Because the art piece would be located in the median, the installation would need approval from the Michigan Department of Transportation. Before that’s done, the City Council must give an official endorsement of the project at a later date.
The median already has a number of art selections near the intersections with Marshall and Cambourne streets. Beeker told the Woodward Talk that they’re interested in sculptures because of Ferndale’s public art program, but also because they’ve been undertaking more public wayfinding pieces.
“We realized that people use different things like sculptures to tell people where something else is. So, you’re looking for the Crow’s Nest at the intersection of Nine Mile and Woodward. That’s an installation that people use. So, people do interact with these pieces, even though they’re in the medium.”