Nearly 20,000 square feet in Dallas’ Design District is in the midst of a major makeover.
M2G Ventures, a Fort Worth real estate investment firm, commissioned 18 artists to create murals and transform an alley of underutilized loading docks into an outdoor gallery.
The project is called The Art Docks, and it adds large-scale murals to Inwood Design District and Ace on Inwood, which host a mix of industrial buildings and retail spaces.
Jessica Miller Essl, one of the co-founders of M2G, said art is foundational to all of their developments.
M2G commissioned the works by 3-D chalk muralists Jan Riggins and Naomi Haverland that are visible from Inwood Road. The firm is also behind a series of murals in Fort Worth’s Foundry District called Inspiration Alley.
When M2G purchased The Art Docks property about a year ago, Miller Essl said only one of its tenants was using its loading dock.
“We looked at it and saw an amazing canvas for Katie [Murray] to create something special with this collection of artists that's truly impressive,” said Miller Essl.
Katie Murray is a Fort Worth artist and M2G Ventures’ chief creative officer. She sifted through 100 artists’ submissions and selected a diverse group that includes 11 Texas-based artists and others from places like Spain and the United Kingdom.
“I really want people to feel like they can come and experience a cultural, accessible experience here,” Murray said. “Sometimes it's intimidating to go into a museum and an art gallery, and here you get to be immersed in it without feeling intimidated.”
After the artists finish up their murals at the end of this month, landscaping features like gallery lighting, turf, benches, planters and music will be added to the space.
Each of the artists selected a song that either relates to the content of their piece or was one that was listened to while creating it. Soon, placards with information about the artists and their process will be added as well.
“We're trying to really immerse the viewer into this experience and make sure that they are kind of getting inside the artist's brain,” Murray said. “This is an educational experience as well as just a visual one.”
Kim Brewer is a Fort Worth native and recently moved back to the area. On March 24, she was finishing up her piece titled “Love is on the Way.” It’s her first time creating a mural.
The piece shows an intergalactic teddy bear riding a horse with the Dallas skyline as its backdrop. On its border, painted cross-stitched lettering reads “This is a message from the future: Love is on the way.”
Brewer said she uses childlike imagery in her work as a way to help people let their guard down and allow themselves to be vulnerable.
“This is me kind of just trying to attempt to give the world a big hug because I feel like we need it right now,” she said.
Jay Wilkinson, another Fort Worth artist, has created murals before, but said this project felt different.
As an artist, he creates photo-realistic portraits, but for this image of his wife, he pushed himself to add more layers and textures. Viewers see two different images of her face as if he has captured her in the act of tilting her head.
“I really got to just experiment and play around, and they gave me all the time and space I needed to do it. That's something that doesn't come along with murals all the time,” Wilkinson said.
Miller Essl said that art is central to all of M2G’s work because it sets their properties apart and helps create a sense of place.
“[It’s] something that people should come see because it takes humans. AI can't make this,” she said. “It takes a labor of love to get to this level of execution.”
The murals will be finished by the end of this month and the landscaping is expected to be installed before the end of April.
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