Paved alley opens door to creative possibilities

The alley between the University of Windsor’s School of Creative Arts and 300 Ouellette Ave., which houses the Windsor Star, was paved on Friday, and the school’s director thinks it can become a cool, interesting space.

“I think seeing it all paved and starting to look beautiful gives you a lot of opportunity to look at beautifying that space and seeing what we can do here,” said Vincent Georgie, who is also the executive director of the Windsor International Film Festival.

“Obviously, with the School of Creative Arts being right next door and certainly with WIFF being right downtown it gets a lot of ideas going as to what we could do with that space, for sure.”

WIFF beautified an alley between Chatham Street West and University Avenue this year, complete with colourful mural by Daniel Bombardier, known as Denial, Derkz and Kristina Bradt.

The alley next to SOCA, the former Windsor Armouries, has been a muddy mess since construction on the repurposing of the old armouries began in 2015.

Georgie believes the new pavement opens all sorts of opportunities.

“Obviously thinking of doing an artists’ alley right there; that’s a big, spacious corridor — so something that is vibrant, something that would beautify the downtown and bring people downtown and something bright and exciting,” Georgie said.

“Right next door here at the School of Creative Arts we’ve got visual arts, we’ve got music, we’ve got film, we’ve got architecture, and having that represented in the alley I think would be pretty exciting.”

WIFF Alley received its own street sign along with new lighting, something Georgie envisions happening with the newly paved alley.

“I think the success we had and the excitement we had with WIFF Alley being opened certainly percolates some ideas about having alleys like this in the downtown core,” Georgie said.

“Really, really create a wow factor that would be really exciting. These are just cool and different spaces that you can really turn into something.”

Earlier this year, a United Way report urged city council to create an alley revitalization strategy with several recommendations, including naming alleys to help people think of them as actual places, such as Maiden Lane, and creating commercial enterprises in alleys like restaurant patios, farmers’ markets and block parties.