Chelsea Art Alley
Between 105 and 107 Main Street, there's a pedestrian corridor most people used to walk through without a second thought. It connects Main Street to Middle Street, runs right behind Geek Brush Studio, and for years it was just... an alley.
Not anymore.
The Chelsea Art Alley is a 24/7 outdoor gallery featuring rotating exhibitions printed on weather-resistant aluminum panels. Rain, snow, or July heat, the art stays up. Alongside the gallery, a "fishbowl" artist studio lets passersby watch art being made in real time through floor-to-ceiling windows. The creative process becomes a kind of public performance; you're walking downtown, and suddenly you're watching a painting happen.
The project was made possible by the Chelsea Downtown Development Authority, the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce (which funded the custom signage and iron bench at the alley entrance), Destination Ann Arbor, and the cooperation of neighboring property owners Curtis Gough of La Jolla Fine Jewelry and Bill Ballagh of State Farm Insurance.
Get Involved
If you’re a regional artist interested in exhibiting, we review submissions on a rolling basis. The project also hosts a "fishbowl" artist residency. For full details, schedules, and official applications, head over to the dedicated Chelsea Art Alley hub at Geek Brush Studio.
Sounds & Sights Festival
Every Thursday evening from June through July, downtown Chelsea comes alive with the Sounds & Sights Festival: live music, street performers, food vendors, and thousands of visitors filling the sidewalks each week. It's Chelsea's signature summer event, and it's one of the reasons this town punches well above its weight as a cultural destination.
I serve on the Sounds & Sights volunteer committee, where I chair the Main Street Masterpiece competition, the annual public vote on artwork displayed in the Chelsea Art Alley. During festival season, thousands of weekly visitors engage directly with regional artists by voting for their favorite piece. It's public art at its most democratic: the community literally picks the winner.
I previously coordinated the festival's Chalk Art Contest, an open-invitation event that turns the municipal parking lot into a temporary canvas. That experience of watching families and artists create large-scale works right on the pavement is a big part of what convinced me that public art belongs in Chelsea's DNA.