After months of community effort, planning, and hard work, Flint and Steel/Wood County Walls cut the ribbon for Artist Alley in Mineola on Saturday.

Artist Alley runs between pacific and Line on either side of Johnson St. The project is a collaboration of Mineola ISD, Flint and Steel/Wood County Walls, the UT Tyler Art Department, and many other local individuals and businesses. 

The alley features artwork from the aforementioned collaborators. Organizers say that art installations for the alley will be switched out regularly to keep everything interesting and to keep visitors wanting to come back.

The ribbon cutting for Artist Alley was well attended; it was one of the opening activities for the Iron Horse Heritage Festival, which was held from 10-4 Saturday. Students, parents, bystanders and organizers came to see the moment happen.

MISD students, who were quite excited to contribute many of the featured works of art, were not allowed to use AI to help with the generation of their artwork. 

Mineola High School teacher Aaron Cavitt said that the 12 students from two MISD graphic design classes hand-designed the posters which were put up in the alley. The design process took between 2-3 weeks.

Cavitt also said that the collaboration between Flint and Steel/Wood County Walls is actually a part of class work.

“(In) my freshman and sophomore year, we’re teaching the skills and the tools and the software. And then, junior and senior year, they’re still learning some of those tools, but I’m putting them to more real-world work…like this,” he said. “It’s for them to learn the entrepreneurial skills.”

Students will soon begin creating art pieces for the next round of installations, which will probably be ready near the end of the year, according to Cavitt.

Not only did the many students associated with this project feel the excitement of the event, but organizers and board members felt it, too.

“We’ve been on this long journey for three years with Wood County Walls, getting art up; it was always, though, ‘How do we get back to a place where we open the doors for our youth to come and get involved (with art in our community)?’” said Todd Witt, who is a board member of Flint and Steel. “This is that day, that it finally happened.”

Flint and Steel members, Wood County Walls members and associated collaborators later set up booths at the festival to sell art and hold activities like door painting and a free photo booth.