Art Walk West, founded in 2015 by the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce, celebrates the area’s creative culture. West Dallas has one of the city’s largest concentrations of artists and artist studios. The sixth annual Art Walk West from 11 a.m.to 6 p.m. on Oct. 24 winds through Trinity Groves and the emerging Tin District. The event is free and open to the public.
Art Walk West Tours
This year, Art Walk West features a virtual and in-person self-guided tour in order to create a safe space for community connection through the arts. The tour also lifts up artistic voices that address issues of social justice. Art exhibits at Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, the Tin District, and art galleries are featured. Attendees are encouraged to start their tour on Fabrication Street, the center of all activities and galleries and where they can pick up a program. A schedule of events and a map show the locations of the murals and descriptions of the art.
Tour stops include live-painted murals, Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, exhibition spaces, artist studios, galleries, hands-on art activities and performances. AT&T Performing Arts Center and Toyota provide live music on their sound stage. Some of West Dallas’ most important artists and galleries, including Sedrick and Letitia Huckaby, Ex Ovo and 500x, are featured.
The West Dallas Chamber of Commerce Instagram will actively track the events of the day Oct. 24. Their Facebook page will host pre-recorded sets and also livestream certain activities. For information, visit westdallaschamber.org.
Healing Pieces on Art Walk West
Healing Pieces: Offerings of Art, Expression and Nature, a collaborative multi-year arts and engagement initiative led by SMU Meadows School of the Arts’ Ignite/Arts Dallas program, has several exhibits on the art walk. Black Power Naps Park/Parque Siestas Negras by Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa can be viewed at Sweet Pass Sculpture Park. The interactive multi-sensory outdoor installation offers rest as a form of reparation.
“It invites visitors to lounge, reclaim idleness and consider the power and energy that has been exhausted from those who are Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC),” said Acosta and Sosa. “It also looks at historical records documenting the deliberate fragmentation of restorative sleep patterns to subjugate enslaved people.”
Black Power Naps features hammocks and mounds of grass in yonic shapes that welcome multiple resting bodies amid a serene soundscape of wind chimes and a soothing playlist. The exhibit is free and open to the public by appointment every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 3-7 p.m.
Sweet Pass Sculpture Park
At 402 Fabrication Street in West Dallas, the nonprofit was founded in 2018 by Tamara Johnson and Trey Burns and is located on an acre lot in West Dallas. Sweet Pass is dedicated to experimentation and community engagement, with the goal of offering thought-provoking, contemporary art in a free and public venue. Their initiative is for education and outreach focused on fostering dialogue about the ideas and objects present in the park. For more information, please visit sweetpasssculpture.park.com.
Project Witness
Healing Pieces is curated by Ignite/Arts Dallas Director Clyde Valentín and SMU Pollock Gallery Director Sofia Bastidas Vivar. The other two works, each at a different site, are an augmented reality experience Project Witness in West Dallas and the 2021 Healing Pieces Action Calendar by RISO BAR. Both Black Power Naps and Project Witness are available for public viewing from Oct. 24 through Dec. 10. An online symposium is planned for Dec. 8.
Project Witness, curated by clemency reform advocate Jason Hernandez, is a free augmented reality experience, It was created by the national Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth with Google and YouTube to bring awareness about childhood incarceration. The interactive exhibit available at six locations (W. Commerce Street & Riverfront Blvd. near Dallas County Criminal Court and North Tower Detention Facility), shows punishment imposed on incarcerated children in the U.S. through personal stories.
