One day last year, Holly Smith got a message on her phone from Elizabeth Mellott, a fellow artist in the Elmwood neighborhood of Dallas’ Oak Cliff. It showed a photo of Juliet Whitsett’s Really Small Museum, a collection of art boxes hosted by a trail conservancy in Austin. “We should do this in our neighborhood,” Melliott wrote.

“When I saw the text, it was like a light went off and I hit the ground running,” said Smith, an artist and photographer whose career has included posts as a principal UX designer/architect at AT&T and other UX design roles at FedEx and Meeting Professionals International.

An “art bike ride” was held as part of the opening day of the Tiny Gallery Trail. [Photo: Holly Smith]

Sprinkled with greenbelts and woods-lined trails, Elmwood is two miles southwest of the Bishop Arts District, and the artists realized it could be an ideal setting for its own public art initiative. Filled with one-story mid-20th-century homes built on a human scale, Elmwood is the kind of quiet little neighborhood increasingly lost in time—far from the 4,000-SF and 5000-SF behemoths crowding against each other in Dallas’ sprawling northlands.

Elmwood is cozy, quiet, walkable. Smith suddenly saw it as a canvas—for something that could spark creativity and engagement for local artists and residents alike.

Putting art where people live

Neighbors visiting the Tiny Gallery Trail. [Photo: Holly Smith]

Smith had long been unsettled by the idea that to encounter art, people had to leave their neighborhoods and walk among strangers in hushed museums and galleries.

“This feels so out of context with how we live our lives,” she said. “What if art wasn’t a destination? What if it was just there, on our block, woven into the texture of daily life, reflecting back to us what’s relevant in our lives? What if art met us where we’re at?”

The answer became the Tiny Gallery Trail, a series of public “art boxes” which Smith co-founded with Mellott and three other Elmwood residents— Jessica Sloan, Pascale Pryor, and James Bauer. The project now stitches the neighborhood together “one small gallery at a time.”

But getting there was a process that took one step at a time. And it began with the neighbors.

Getting the neighborhood involved

The Tiny Gallery Trail became a true neighborhood project, including involvement by Jose Villanueva of El Refugio Galerie. [Photo: Holly Smith]

To gauge interest in the project, Smith presented the idea at an Elmwood neighborhood association meeting. Then she partnered with Violeta Gallardo, a Spanish-speaking friend and neighbor, to canvas Elmwood and gather community input, ensuring that all neighbors, both English- and Spanish-speaking, had an opportunity to respond. Residents were asked where they wanted to see the art boxes, what themes they hoped to explore, and what benefits they thought the project could bring.

“We originally planned to place the boxes outside private homes,” Smith said, “but the neighborhood told us they wanted them in public green spaces and along the trail.” Residents also identified “community engagement” and “increased walkability” as the project’s biggest potential benefits.

Raising funds with ‘deliberately terrible’ pet portraits

Raising funds for the Tiny Gallery Trail by doing “deliberately terrible” pet portraits. [Photo: Holly Smith]

The next step: raising money to build the art boxes. A quirky project like the Tiny Gallery Trail seemed to call for a series of quirky fundraisers. At one of them, the project team dressed up as famous artists and drew “deliberately terrible” pet portraits at a pay-what-you-want fundraiser at Elmwood’s local Green Pet Supply.

“The neighborhood loved it,” Smith said. “One resident was so charmed by her portrait that she put it on her holiday card.”

Angel Faz and Holly Smith installing one of the art boxes. [Video still: Tiny Gallery Trail]

More serious help came from the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, which funded the remaining boxes and provided artist stipends for the opening exhibition. Arts and Culture would go on to partner with Dallas Park and Recreation to bring the art boxes to the trail.

Building the art boxes was a community effort. Local woodworker Duncan Richards designed and built the first box. Smith, welder James Bauer, and artist Pascale Pryor built the remaining four. A neighbor, Vinnie Sherman, helped out with woodworking and installation, and Jessica and Jared Sloan and Marion Pryor helped install the boxes along the trail.

Opening day for the Tiny Gallery Trail—and five Elmwood artists

Cutting the ribbon at April’s opening of the Tiny Gallery Trail. [Photo: Holly Smith]

On April 25, the two-mile Tiny Gallery Trail opened with five gallery boxes placed along the Elmwood Branch trail to Rugged Park, where they remain today and for the future—four along the path and one outside Pegasus Creative Reuse at Tyler Station. The inaugural exhibition, titled Elmwood!, features work by five Elmwood artists: Tina Medina, Elizabeth Mellott, Pascale Pryor, Karla Garcia, and Angel Faz.

“Elmwood is filled with amazing artists,” Smith said. “That’s our gem. Right there on the trail.”

Artist Pascale Pryor speaking to event attendees on opening day of the Tiny Gallery Trail. [Photo: Holly Smith]

The opening turned out to be the perfect antidote for a stuffy day at a walled-up museum. The lively neighborhood happening featured an art bike ride, live music, and artists stationed along the trail to showcase their work.

Local businesses Cenzo’s and Little Joy donated their time—and golf carts—to shuttle attendees along the trail. Pegasus Tattoo and Wellness set up a stop with refreshments and temporary tattoos, and curator Jose Villanueva of El Refugio Galerie hosted a kid-friendly station where Natalia Padilla of DSGN FOR US helped children color their own tote bags. 

“We even had a bike ride group, the Hangover Riders DTX, who show up to escort some of the children to safely ride along the trail,” Smith said.

An “art bike ride” was held as part of the opening day of the Tiny Gallery Trail. [Photo: Holly Smith]

What surprised Smith most wasn’t the successful opening, but what the project gave back after she “succeeded at some things and failed at others” along the way.

“I’ve come out of this with a better understanding of my own neighborhood and the people who live here,” she said. “I look at these art boxes as a way for artists and neighbors to share in discovery, engage, and connect. Exactly what the neighborhood survey feedback asked for. I’ll take that win.”

Dogs of Oak Cliff opens on the trail in October

[Image: Tiny Gallery Trail]

The Tiny Gallery Trail’s next exhibition,Dogs of Oak Cliff, opens in October.

The show will include work from children in the neighborhood and from nearby Margaret B. Henderson Elementary, with a dedicated outdoor art stop at ElmWolf, the neighborhood dog park. To make the next exhibition a true neighborhood event, Jessica Sloan, past president of the Elmwood Neighborhood Association, is partnering with Herby’s, a local hamburger shop named after owner Will Rhoten’s dog, to host a community celebration along the trail. Dogs of Oak Cliff will also feature a partnership with Green Pet Supply, a neighborhood dog adoption, and a low-cost pet vaccine clinic.

Participation in the Tiny Gallery Trail is open to all artists, Smith said, noting that three other exhibitions are already planned for 2027. A recent neighborhood meet-up is helping to shape what the 2027 exhibitions will look like, and a programming committee has been set up to develop an open call, a themed show, and a collaborative exhibit. Artists can apply for Tiny Gallery Trail exhibitions by going here.

Elmwood today. Dallas and Texas tomorrow?

Art box on Oak Cliff’s Tiny Gallery Trail featuring work by artist Elizabeth Mellott. [Photo: Holly Smith]

Smith has a long-term vision that’s bigger than the project in Elmwood. “I’d love to see this trail extend throughout Oak Cliff,” she said. “If that happens, I’d love to see it build throughout Dallas. If that happens, across the state.”

Meanwhile, the gallery is on Instagram here and waiting along the two-mile Tiny Gallery Trail, ready to be explored.

More looks at the project

Installing the art boxes took some digging. [Photo: Holly Smith]

Karla Garcia installing her art. [Photo: Holly Smith]

Art box on Oak Cliff’s Tiny Gallery Trail featuring work by artist Karla Garcia. [Photo: Holly Smith]

Art box on Oak Cliff’s Tiny Gallery Trail featuring work by artist Angel Faz. [Photo: Holly Smith]

Vinnie “Dali” Cenzos. [Photo: Holly Smith]

The artists participating in the Tiny Art Gallery’s first exhibition.

Artist Pascale Pryor and James Bauer. [Photo: Holly Smith]

A map of the trail shows where the art boxes are located. NOTE: The events described on the map were for the trail’s opening day in April. But the locations of the art boxes remains in effect today. [Image: Tiny Gallery Trail]

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