LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In Louisville, a growing program turns alleyways into art galleries, cutting down on graffiti and eyesores, all while supporting local artists.

The Louisville Downtown Partnership created the Alley Galley program in 2017. Businesses and other sponsors pay a onetime fee to wrap back alley doors with original artwork from Louisville Metro area artists.

The program’s founder, Ken Herndon, says part of his goal is to help others simply enjoy local art.

“We wanted people to be cutting, doing a shortcut and coming across this unexpectedly,” Herndon explained. “We like the fact that it’s a discovery for them.”

Herndon and the rest of his team at the Louisville Downtown Partnership had already launched other beautification project, like bike rack sculptures and flower planters along downtown streets. However, the other big reason Herndon and the LDP wanted to create a walkable art gallery downtown was to help the city and local businesses improve streets and alleyways.

“A big blank door is a nice spot for graffiti sometimes,” Herndon explained. “So, artists and graffiti folks, as well, usually respect other art, and they don’t bother them, usually.”

Businesses and other sponsors pay for the otherwise unattractive doors to be wrapped with vinyl, high-resolution photo prints of art.

“Vinyl allows us to reproduce any kind of artwork into anything that can be photographed,” Herndon said. “So, rather than it just being limited to just painters, they can do photography, weaving, all kinds of painting, drawings, everything.”

While businesses ultimately choose what goes on their doors, Herndon uses his training in art to curate what would look best.

“In the current catalogue, we have 65 artists that have given us over 700 images,” Herndon said. “Nobody wants to to go through all that, so what I do — if they say, ‘We have this wall,’ I come and photograph it, I choose artwork that I think looks good against the background, and I give them eight or 10 choices. And 98% of the time, they’ll pick one of those.”

Anytime someone’s work is selected, that artist gets paid a $300 onetime-use fee.

“Any artist who does work, they have things in their portfolio that look great that they never sold, so this enables them to pull out a great piece of art, dust it off, expose it to a new audience and get free money,” Herndon said, adding, “We never take possession of the original art. They can keep it, and some people have actually sold pieces from this exposure.”

Maintenance is also worked into the price of sponsoring an Alley Gallery door, which is generally $950,000 for a standard sized, single door. Herndon says the doors rarely get tagged, but when they do, the vinyl allows for easy cleanup that wouldn’t be possible if artists physically painted the doors.

“We will take our chemicals and will almost certainly be able to remove this without any damage at all,” Herndon said while showing one door that had been graffitied. 

Always looking for new doors to cover, Herndon is also experimenting with larger spots, like the doors he covered on the MSD pumping station downtown.

“They are by far one of the biggest projects we’ve done,” Herndon said. “They are huge.”

A 12-foot-tall wrap of one of Louisville artist Andy Perez’s original pieces is on one of those MSD doors. The mixed media collage artist says the project helps bolster the local art scene in Kentucky’s largest city.

“It’s getting better and better. I feel like and programs like the Alley Art Gallery are one of those reasons,” Perez said.

Perez has had three pieces selected as part of the program, so far. 

In total, there are currently 138 doors covered with local art in downtown Louisville, with more currently in the proposal phase. The doors can be found by looking for yellow, repurposed highway markers that hang out over the doors in alleyways.

You can also view a map of the doors on the Louisville Downtown Partnership’s website.

Meanwhile, Perez is currently working on a new exhibit at the KORE Gallery in Louisville, which opens Oct. 7. 

“I’m sort of exploring my Puerto Rican identity as a Puerto Rican person in Kentuckiana,” Perez said of the exhibit.

The artist plans to keep participating in the Alley Gallery program, along with producing original art and commissions in the Louisville area.