Partnership in Dallas reimagines vacant spaces with meaningful art

Two departments in the city of Dallas – opposite on paper but alike in their missions – are teaming up to transform vacant lots and other abandoned structures around the city.

It's art with a purpose.

The partnership between Dallas Code Compliance and the Office of Arts and Culture is called Beautiful Communities, with a special project within that called the Re:Imagine Vacancy Initiative.

Code Compliance finds the locations, makes sure there's permission to paint or install art, and then the Office of Arts and Culture finds the artists. The goal is to create huge, colorful murals that tell the stories of historic and meaningful neighborhoods.

NBC 5 caught up with local artist Armando Aguirre, who was selected for the latest installation of this project at the 10th Street Historic District in Oak Cliff. It's the site of one of the last standing  Freedmen's towns in the area, ripe with history.

"This is a project that I feel they're trying to conserve a lot of that history and keep it intact,” Aguirre said. "I really like how art can tell that story and get people interested or at least ask more questions about what this is."

Code compliance identified large, art-deco-style pillars that are over 100 years old and once held the Interurban Railway Bridge that connected Dallas to towns beyond. Parts of the bridge are crumbled and overgrown in a forested area within the neighborhood. The pillars stand tall along Clarendon Drive – a remnant of a distant past.

"When you drive by those streets, you know, the residents that have been driving by all these years and see all those trestles just sitting there with graffiti or whatever. Then in the next few weeks, they'll be driving by and seeing works of art, that they can embrace as a community because they'll be able to identify what they see. So in my own words, I love it,” said Rhonda Ivery, community arts manager for the Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.

Alanna Quillen NBC 5

Alanna Quillen NBC 5

It’s too much history to tear down. That's why Aguirre, who has worked on similar art murals in the neighborhood, is working to preserve that history by painting scenes including notable residents like blues musician T-Bone Walker and Olympian Rafer Johnson.

"The last side of the pillars will be focusing on what the pillars used to be – so that would focus on the railway and the company that built it, which is also one of the largest projects that was built by African Americans,” said Aguirre. “So seeing a big construction like this that focuses on that history as well I think is important."

These are stories that many who drive by may never know, until now.

"We want something that's reflective of the history of the neighborhood," said Ivery. "[These spaces] may seem abandoned, but there is a good healthy community around it. And so we just want to do something to beautify the area and give the residents more of a sense of belonging and a sense of culture."

The first Re:Imagine Vacancy project brought art sculptures to the Bonton neighborhood of South Dallas.

Other projects include Murals on the Move, where they turn huge rolling containers used by the city for storage and abatement clean-up from eyesore to eye candy.

It took some time to get these projects off the ground during the pandemic but now city leaders have the ball rolling with several more in the works.

The next Re:Imagine Vacancy project is going up on Congo Street in the East Dallas neighborhood of Jubilee Park. The call for local artists on this project just opened up this week and runs until September 4th. Click here for details on the guidelines.

After that, the next project will be in a vacant lot in Pleasant Grove. Stand by for more details on the call for artists.