Splashes of Color Mark the Beginnings of our Dilly Dally Art Alley!

by Sarah James

The Dilly Dally Art Alley, named by Warrington and Quincy residents and located between commercial Livernois Avenue and residential Warrington, has been in the conception stage for a number of years.  Late this summer it began to blossom.

The idea behind the Dilly Dally Art Alley is to infuse creativity and beauty into the alley space that has continually fallen victim to illegal construction dumping, overgrown weed trees, and daily trash. Residents do their best to keep up with cleaning the alley, but a few residents wanted to go a bit further. Alleys are interesting urban spaces, and the mix of residential and commercial in this particular alley offers some interesting silhouettes and textures and a unique opportunity for collaboration between residents and business owners. Donna King, niece of the law firm owner on Livernois in the Dilly Dally block, took a particular interest in the alley, and weeded and gardened regularly to brighten up the area. Warrington resident Sarah James joined Donna in her efforts and introduced the idea of bringing art into the alley.

Warrington residents were receptive and enthusiastic to having color splashed onto their garage walls facing the alley. A radiant, colorful poppy scene was the first garage mural experiment to brighten up the alley. An art teacher friend of the home owner helped bring this mural to life. The nature theme was continued on the adjacent garage with leafy autumn trees and cute little birds.

The UDCA neighborhood spring cleanup laid the foundation for getting this alley ready for its creative role, and the Tuesday/Thursday walking group continued the effort later in the summer by cutting down weed trees, trimming excessive brush intruding into the paved alley path, and sweeping the alley clean in lieu of walking one evening. A special thank you to this group comprised of Jennifer Bagwell, Bob Herman, Sarah James, Nick Kyser, Cathy Lee, Tom McGuire, Greg O’Neil, Mary Jo Smith, and Lenora Taylor, and a hearty hug for Henry Ford II who weed whacked the area surrounding the vacant spa building, painted the back of the building, and painted base coats on two of the garages. The city came through once again and picked up the large pile of brush and weed trees after a call to Tony Kinsey at our Community Access Center.  

Jean Smith, owner of a rental house on Warrington who works for the Detroit Workforce Development Department, gave permission for the kids to paint murals on her garage and brick wall facing Livernois. This spot was conducive to the kids’ mural because the garage is flat unlike the usual clapboard garages in the rest of the alley, and this is a prime visible spot from Livernois. Kush Paint in Roseville donated paint, brushes, containers, stirrers, and hand cleaner for this project.

Art teacher Eileen Toro helped Warrington resident Sarah James plan and implement the mural to be created by neighborhood kids of varying ages and volunteers Jennifer Bagwell, Megan Green, Molly James, and Eileen Toro helped bring this scene to fruition by guiding the kids during the project. A trip to Arts and Scraps, the donation from Kush paint, and artsy paint rollers donated by Warrington resident Lenora Taylor fulfilled the supply needs. Children from ages 3 to 13 painted energetic flowers and butterflies on the two spaces.

Inherent in the idea of the Dilly Dally Art Alley is to create a space that showcases art in a public way and to create and celebrate the creation of art with young children in this space. Sharon Vlahovich, UDCA resident and librarian at the Parkman Branch library, transferred a craft offered to children at the library to the Dilly Dally in the Art Alley festival in August. Through her guidance, kids repurposed old compact discs, bottle tops, and marbles into colorfully-patterned spinning tops. Barbara Ford also brought miniature porcelain masks and paints and brushes and materials for collages to make with the kids. Older kids painted on boards, each creating their own paintings.

Daughter of the owner of the recently-opened salon on Livernois helped Donna King weed and clean up the parking lot adjacent to the Livernois parking lot between Donna’s aunt’s law firm building and the vacant spa. Donna generously opened up the charming and cozy space behind the law firm for the potluck as part of Dilly Dally in the Art Alley festival. A small and festive craft fair was held in the alley selling fabric art, earrings, handmade pillows, fabric dolls, decorative hooks, photographs, and more.

In October, one of the Wheelhouse Detroit master series bike tours included the University District in the 25-mile scenic Detroit ride. This group of 15 cyclists from a variety of Detroit suburbs rode their bikes through the Dilly Dally Art Alley to see the beginnings of this creative alley. When the annual tour goes through next year, we hope to have three more art scenes added and hand-made signs on either end that identify the Dilly Dally Art Alley. We’d like to have the Dilly Dally in the Art Alley festival each year and invite people to stroll through and enjoy this urban art space that exudes collaboration and a can-do attitude!

 

Dilly Dally Art Alley is located between commercial Livernois Avenue and residential Warrington.