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In Oak Cliff, an art walk Saturday is the latest event to help preserve a historic church

The Oak Cliff Assembly Art Walk in July
Joey Powell
The Oak Cliff Assembly's first Art Walk, in July, attracted a huge crowd and sold almost all of the work on display.

More than 50 artists are expected to show off their work at The Oak Cliff Assembly Art Walk.

The church, at 919 Morrell Ave., was constructed in 1921, but fell into decline.

AJ Ramler is with Proxy Properties, which bought the church last year. It was flooded because the roof had caved in.

"There were tons of pews and a lot of them were ruined cause they had been sitting in water," Ramler said. "And we were trying to figure out like, what do we do with these.

"Can we sell these pews? Can we repurpose the pews? And somewhere along the way, someone wanted to paint one.”

Repurposed pews sold at the last art walk
Galilee Abdullah
Artists painted and repurposed old pews that were sold at The Oak Cliff Assembly's last art walk in July.

The group held its first art walk in July and sold the painted pews.

“We were expecting like 200, 300 people to come, and then a thousand people ended up coming,” said Haley Leavitt, also with Proxy Properties.

Galilee Abdullah
Organizers hope their second Art Walk on Oct. 8 will be as successful as the first.

Eventually the group hopes to lease the space to local businesses.

The art walk is Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. at The Oak Cliff Assembly, 919 Morrell Ave. Free.

Galilee Abdullah is an arts reporter.