An art box made by Duncan Richards. Photo courtesy of Holly Smith.

The ElmArt Collective, a group of Elmwood residents and artists, are preparing to unveil the first installation for the Tiny Gallery Trail.

The inaugural show, entitled Elmwood!, invites viewers to see the neighborhood through five perspectives inspired by the place they call home, with the artist lineup to be revealed at a later date.

The collective is made up of four artists: Elizabeth Mellott, Holly Smith, Pascale Pryor and James Bauer. The fifth member, Jessica Sloan, said she is not an artist, but instead assists through the “administration execution” of communications and social media for the group. Sloan is also the president of the Elmwood Neighborhood Association.

Some of the previous collaborations from the ElmArt Collective include the Elmwood Arts Festival and Holiday Market that took place in December and a community garage sale that took place in September. The sale was put on specifically to help raise funds for the Tiny Gallery Trail at a time when it was just a concept.

Outside the collective’s own fundraising, the Tiny Gallery Trail received early support from the Methodist Dallas Medical Center which funded the first art box made and later earned a grant from the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture to further develop the project. The trail was made possible through this support and working with both City of Dallas Park and Recreation and the Office of Arts and Culture.

Tiny Gallery Trail takes inspiration from the Really Small Museum ATX, which is co-curated by Juliet Whitsett and Marianne Newsom.

“When I was in Austin (last year), I was riding my bike, and I passed an art box, and so I immediately texted Holly, and I said, ‘We should do this in Elmwood,’” Mellott said. “Elmwood’s always been really great at collaborating. We have lots of committees, and we get together, and we work on the Mardi Gras float and we’ve always been very community-based. And then I’ve always been community-based as well. I’ve always done outreach and community programs and things like that. And so it was really nice for this to come together, for us to bring art and community and Elmwood’s the perfect place.”

Smith, the lead on the project, said that the displays will be similar to a Little Free Library box, except more secure and strictly for viewing rather than allowing people to take or leave art.

The exhibit will include five custom-built art boxes along a one-mile trail. The materials used to build the boxes include wood and metal, with two sides on each box that have plexiglass to view the display. 

The boxes will also have solar power on the top to be lit with a glow for at least the first hour at dusk, Smith said.

“Each artist will have a box to create something that (shows) their voice, their perspective about Elmwood,” she said. “And then James (Bauer) made four of the boxes and Duncan Richards made one of the boxes.”

Smith describes the box design as a collaborative effort, including a lot of back and forth between herself, Bauer, and Pryor to shape what it would look like and run successful tests.

“We tried some different things that were kind of difficult to do, that we would still like to explore in the future to make some cool aspects to the boxes,” Bauer said. “But you know, you have to go with something to get this off the ground. We had to kind of work out skills all together to make the current boxes to get them done and make them cost effectively and within a certain date, so that’s what the current ones are.”

An art box made by James Bauer. Photo courtesy of Holly Smith.

The Elmwood! exhibit will open April 25 and run until August 1, with future plans to host a rotating exhibition by local and regional artists. 

Mellot said that having the gallery in the neighborhood is an exciting opportunity to actually show art within the community rather than outside of neighbors’ viewpoints.

“Hopefully we’re going to meet more neighbors, more artists and hopefully we’ll also make different things, not just the little boxes,” Pryor said. “I mean, the little boxes are beautiful. It’s a great thing, great idea. But I’m also hoping that that’s the first step to a lot more art in our neighborhood.”

The ElmArt Collective is inviting neighbors to come lend a hand, grab a free T-shirt and be a part of the art box installation Saturday, April 11, at 10 a.m. The group will be meeting at the rectangular grass area where “the 3Es” of Elmwood, Edgefield, and Elm come together.

Updated April 9, 2026 at 1:13 p.m.