Local artist Elsa Ali puts the finishing touches on her mural as her daughter Izabella, 14, looks on. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Lona Morales, of Clarke Square, stood in front of a mural painted on her alley fence depicting angels floating above a flowery hill, with the name Lisa painted in blue surrounded by the words “joy,” “faith” and “love.”
“It’s like I feel her spirit when I look at the angels,” Morales said, referring to her adult daughter Lisa, who died of cancer a few weeks ago. Lisa was expected to live long enough to see the completion of the mural but didn’t, according to her mother.
The mural was created in Lisa’s memory by Elsa Ali, an artist who lives on the block. It is part of “Art in the Alleys,” a project in Clarke Square that turned a trash-strewn alley into a public art space. Prior to the project, the alley on South 26th Street between West Scott and West Mineral contained nothing more than garbage cans, an occasional graffiti scrawl, bare garages and a mishmash of fences.
Clarke Square artist Lucas Alamo hangs a ceramic medallion on the fence. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
The alley is now decorated with murals painted by volunteer artists and hanging ceramic medallions, most of which were created by neighborhood residents.
“The alley is now full of symbols of hope and beauty,” said Lori Gramling, who runs a ceramics studio on the block with her husband.
Gramling, her daughter in-law Janelle Gramling and neighbor Thomas Shropshire had been working on art projects with neighborhood children for years. A few months ago they decided they wanted to get even more people involved. They brought their idea to beautify the alley to the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative (CSNI), which agreed to fund the project and bring in more partners including the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Development Corporation.
“We saw this as a big win because the project was resident-driven and leads to social connections, increased public safety and many other elements that improve the quality of life for residents in the neighborhood,” said Ian Bautista, executive director of CSNI.
The project quickly grew to include Highland Community School, youth from TRUE Skool and the Epic Center Community Organization, as well as neighborhood youth and adults who worked for weeks to create the ceramic pieces that now dot the alley.
“One day we had five people working on it; the next week 50,” said Shropshire, who went door to door asking local homeowners for their permission to paint their garages or help create the art.
In the end, dozens of children and residents gathered in the alley to celebrate the makeover. Gramling said she hopes that word of the project spreads to more residents and that artwork will fill more alleys, including one nearby that also had a mural painted recently on a garage.
Ali and her daughter Izabella, 14, vow to continue to be involved.
“We’re going to keep going until the supplies run out or it’s so cold the paint dries,” Ali said.
Edgar is a senior staff reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Mendez is a proud graduate of UW-Milwaukee, where he double majored in Journalism and Sociology, and of Marquette University, where he earned a master’s degree in Communication. As an accomplished journalist, Edgar’s awards include a 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow award, several press club awards and a Society of Professional Journalists’ regional award for columns dealing with issues such as poverty, homelessness and racism.
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This is a beautiful project. I have a picture of me painting out
graffiti in the same alley. I lived there for 50 years and was a
member of the Clarke Square Community Association for many
of those years. I would be glad to contribute to your project.
Please email me where I can send the donation. Thanks.
Kathleen
Kathleen – I’d love to put you in contact with the neighbors doing this work. Please contact me at your convenience: (414) 647-0548 x 107 or e-mail me: ian@clarkesquare.org I look forward to hearing from you.
Edgar thanks for alerting the world about a neat project.
Chris
Wonderful people with a wonderful project! Thank you, Mr. Mendez, for making people aware. There are way more acts of goodness in our city than bad (unfortunately the news is usually about the bad) — I appreciate hearing about these Milwaukeeans and the good they are doing.
I live in the area and sometimes pedal my bike through that alley while on the way to work. I like looking at a few of the neat garages and wondering what that huge concrete block garage was originally used for. Anyways, one morning I turned into the alley and was pleasantly surprised whe I saw the artwork. I really enjoyed looking at it and was thinking what a neat thing to do. Discovering stuff like this is one of the benefits of living in the city. Now I ride down the alley to look at garages and art!