A 300-foot mural commissioned by Cornerstone Alliance for an alley behind its office in Benton Harbor is nearly complete after volunteers came out last week and over the weekend to help paint it.
The mural is all along the ground in the alley bounded by Pipestone Avenue, West Main Street, Colfax Street, and Wall Street. It was designed by artist Kim Wood, and Cornerstone Alliance manager of physical development Jillian Nadolski tells us Wood guided the volunteers who contributed starting last Wednesday.
“We had about four or five different people from the Boys and Girls Club in the morning,” Nadolski said. “We had the Benton Harbor Community Development Corporation, Ashley Hines, stopped by with her nieces. We had employees from Michigan Works come by. There was a church group.”
Nadolski says all in all, the mural spans about 7,800 square feet. It’s one part of the Pipestone Alley Activation Project, a plan by Cornerstone to turn the alley into a public gathering space. Nadolski says the next steps are coming up soon.
“The next step will be getting the overhead lighting in. We’ve got the structure up already along the building wall facing the alley.”
They’ll also place some furniture there and install landscaping. The plan is to have the alley transformed into a pedestrian promenade by September.
Nadolski says the project is already generating a buzz as people wander over to check out the mural.
