Grants totaling over one million dollars are headed for the Avenue of Fashion, a historic shopping district on Livernois adjacent to the Sherwood Forest neighborhood. While some of the cash goes to general improvements like lighting and landscaping, a good chunk of it is meant to help artists and entrepreneurs enliven the district's sleepy storefronts. The goal here is more ambitious than just getting art and retail into white-walled storefronts — it's much more open-ended than that. There are exterior walls ripe for murals, a vacant lot in need of a patio/event space, raw spaces ready for anything, and even chicken n' waffles. Check out the spaces in the above gallery, then get the deets on the district map just ahead.

We included info provided by the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation's REVOLVE retail program to give a feel for what to look forward to when new installations start to debut in September. Interested in participating? Get the details here, but you'll need to hurry -- the application deadline is July 8.