New Kensington OKs art project for part of downtown alley

An organizer of a new art project in downtown New Kensington says it promises to draw tourists to the city.

City Council has unanimously approved the “Art in the Alley” project for Ivy Alley, from 10th Street north to the municipal parking lot. The alley runs between Fourth and Fifth avenues.

Jamie Smittle, vice president of the New Kensington Arts Center, said she is extremely happy the project has been approved and that residents will start seeing pieces installed soon.

The arts center, along with the New Ken Downtown Partnership, proposed it.

“I think this is going to be a great benefit and a new reason for people to visit New Ken,” Smittle said. “It’s going to be a new tourist attraction.”

New Kensington’s planning commission in August recommended approval of the project. The commission’s recommendation also included the groups’ plans to paint the Fifth Avenue crosswalks at Eighth and 10th streets, but council’s vote at a special meeting Tuesday did not include the crosswalks.

City Clerk Dennis Scarpiniti said officials want to see how the alley goes before sanctioning the crosswalks. Council would have to vote on the crosswalks before they could be done, he said.

Scarpiniti said the city is also preparing to replace sidewalks in the downtown area, and it is unclear whether that work would impact the crosswalks should they be painted. Rather than hold up the entire project, he said, officials wanted the groups to be able to get started in the alley.

The project aims to decorate all of Ivy Alley, but city officials have approved only the section between 10th Street and the municipal parking lot. The organizations will need to go back to the planning commission and City Council before proceeding with other blocks of the alley.

Smittle said organizers hope to get started within the next couple of weeks.

“We’re trying to take advantage of the nice weather, and we’ve been planning for a bit,” she said. “It’s still going to be baby steps.”

The art in that block of the alley will have a nature theme, Smittle said. Installations contained in the groups’ presentation to the planning commission and council are greenlit; anything else would have to go through the city for review and approval.

Smittle said the organizations have approval to place art on buildings owned by Olde Towne Overhaul and Councilman Corey Pistininzi, owner of ModFinish.