TIME Puts Detroit's Little Village on Its 2025 World's Greatest Places List

TIME has placed Detroit's Little Village on its 2025 World's Greatest Places list, the magazine's annual roundup of destinations it wants travelers to seek out. The East Village arts campus was the only spot in Michigan to make the list, which TIME published on March 13, 2025. Writer Brett Berk authored the entry.

TIME assembles the list each year from nominations submitted by its network of international correspondents and contributors, along with an open application process, weighing places that offer something new to see or do. The 2025 edition runs to 100 destinations worldwide, spanning hotels, museums, restaurants, parks, and cultural sites.

Little Village is the work of JJ and Anthony Curis, the couple behind Library Street Collective. The two launched the downtown gallery in October 2012 after a tenant deal fell through in a building Anthony's real estate firm was rehabbing. They opened with a show by graffiti artist Jason Revok, at a moment when Detroit was heading into bankruptcy. Anthony had worked in real estate development and JJ in public accounting before the gallery.

The campus opened in spring 2024 on the city's east side and now stretches across several blocks of the East Village neighborhood, mixing galleries, hospitality, and recreation. Its centerpiece is the Shepherd, a 1911 church that the Curises converted into a cultural center, exhibition space, and performance venue. The grounds hold sculptures by the late Detroit artist Charles McGee and a skatepark designed in collaboration with Tony Hawk and Detroit artist McArthur Binion. The site also includes ALEO, an art-filled bed and breakfast, and the Little Village Library, a public archive of work by artists of color curated by Black Art Library founder Asmaa Walton.

Admission to the galleries is free. "Everything we do here is free and open to the public," Anthony Curis told WXYZ, describing the campus as a landing spot for anyone drawn to art and community.

The TIME recognition lands as Library Street Collective keeps expanding its footprint in the neighborhood, with the OMA-designed Lantern complex and additional projects in the works.