Detroit museum receives grant to complete Mike Kelley art project

This post has been updated.

When artist Mike Kelley died this year he left behind a number of unfinished projects. One of the biggest was “Mobile Homestead,” a planned large-scale replica of the artist’s home in suburban Detroit. Now it appears that the project will come to life posthumously thanks to a grant awarded to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit.

The museum has announced that it has received a $150,000 grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation for the completion of “Mobile Homestead.” The museum expects to finish construction of the project in early 2013.

This year’s Whitney Biennial featured three videos produced by Kelley that documented the first phases of “Mobile Homestead.” The fully realized project will feature an education and public engagement program scheduled to launch in May, according to the museum.

[Updated] A spokeswoman said the grant of $150,000 from the Rauschenberg Foundation is to specifically support only the programming for “Mobile Homestead,” as opposed to the construction.

She said the construction of “Mobile Homestead” is an Artangel Commission with the LUMA Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, along with the support of the Artangel International Circle.

Kelley hailed from the Detroit area but spent much of his adult life in Southern California. The artist, 57, was found dead in February at his home in South Pasadena. It is believed that his death was a suicide.

ALSO:

Mike Kelley: A game-changer for the art world

Review: A Mike Kelley sculpture makes its West Coast debut

‘Devastated’: Shock, grief after artist Mike Kelley’s sudden death