DETROIT – The Spirit of Detroit is being used to transform the alleys in a few neighborhoods into works of art.
Many of you might think of alleys only as places for dumping trash, but a new program might change your way of thinking and give those neighborhoods something new to celebrate.
Detroit has been many things and has many personalities; the birthplace of Motown sound and electronic music and the arsenal of democracy.
The Motor City is known for manufacturing cars. If you’ve traveled throughout various neighborhoods, you could certainly believe it is the city of murals based on the incredible building art found in the nooks and crannies throughout Detroit’s communities.
So cue that creativity regarding neighborhood alleys, like the one Zachary Heard lives near.
“This neighborhood when we first started was run down, tore up,” said Heard. “Our entire vision was to make it more beautiful and safer for the kids to have somewhere to go and play.
On Wednesday (July 27), Mayor Mike Duggan, along with journalist turned director of arts and culture for the city of Detroit Rochelle Riley, announced a new formal initiative to transform alleys into art places.
“Artists want space, and neighborhoods want their space to look pretty,” said Riley. “One of the things that we have an abundance of is alleys.”
“You’re seeing the murals across the city, and they are now drawing tourists around the country to see Detroiters expressing themselves, and this is going to be even more,” said Duggan. “Each neighborhood is going to express their own views and perspective, and people will want to go from one neighborhood to another to see the beauty.”
Seen in the video player above is the pilot phase, which has five alleys in Detroit, places where neighbors had already started the clean-up and beautification process.
The city council has allotted three million American Rescue Plan dollars for artists to be brought in to collaborate with neighbors as murals will be pained in the alleys.
Seen in the video player above is a sampling of what it will look like.
“They’ll be a theme all the way around the alley, then the community will be able to meet with the artist, and they’ll agree on, and then the artist will agree on and proceed to paint it,” Duggan said.
But the project doesn’t have to stop at five.
“If you live in a community and you want your community to be better or to look better, let us know so that we can help you however we can,” Riley said. “It’s a pilot, so we’re hoping to do many of them.”
Alleys were once the throwaway side street appendages that are now becoming viable destinations to see, marvel, be inspired, and find the next.
To get specific, the neighborhoods involved in the pilot program are Jefferson Chalmers, Old Redford, the Schulze area, NW Goldberg and Springwells.
