Miniature door display celebrates creativity, supports local stores
Businesses throughout Dunwoody Village are displaying new doors. These doors, however, don’t open into physical spaces. Instead, they are pieces in a new art exhibit that opens youthful creativity to the community.
The exhibit, “Doorwoody,” is sponsored by Create Dunwoody, “a community-focused initiative dedicated to fostering arts, culture, and creative innovation to drive economic growth in Dunwoody,” according to an online source.
Dunwoody High School students were invited to create original art with doors as the central theme. From among the designs the students presented, 14 were selected for the exhibit. “The chosen artists started with plain miniature doors and added paint and materials to bring their doors to life. Most designs were three-dimensional,” an announcement from Create Dunwoody stated.
Doorwoody “brings the creativity of Dunwoody High School students inside local businesses through hand-designed miniature door displays,” according to Create Dunwoody.
“Doorwoody is a simple idea designed to have a big impact. It provides student artists a real public platform while giving the community a fun reason to walk the Village, visit businesses, and celebrate young talent,” Rosemary Watts, executive director of Create Dunwoody, said in announcing Doorwoody.
The chosen entries have been installed throughout the Greater Dunwoody Village area, “encouraging residents and visitors to experience student art while discovering neighborhood shops and restaurants,” Create Dunwoody noted. Doorwoody is currently on exhibit, with displays installed at participating Dunwoody Village businesses and open to the public during normal business hours.
Doorwoody was created in partnership with the Dunwoody Team of Leadership Perimeter. Individual contributors include GregSchlam, Fernanda Kirchner, Viktoria Sobolevsky, Michael Carlson, Manish Aggarwal, Paula Shiver, Kenneth Melby, and Lauren Sok.
“We are grateful to Leadership Perimeter and our business contributors for helping us expand opportunities for Dunwoody High School students in a way that also supports local commerce,” Watts said.
Doorwoody is also designed as a community photo experience, Create Dunwoody explained. Visitors are invited to find the doors, take selfies or photos with their favorites, and post on social media using #CreateDunwoody and #Doorwoody. The community organization said that participating businesses will offer specials, discounts, and prizes for eligible posts.
“Seeing student work displayed in real-world settings validates their creativity in a powerful way,” Dunwoody High School art teacher Claire Zimmerman commented. “This exhibit encourages students to think about audience, craftsmanship, and storytelling, and it shows the community what our students can do when their art is taken seriously.”
Visitors can find Doorwoody art pieces at these Greater Dunwoody Village locations:
Summit Coffee Dunwoody – Fruits of the Summer by Michelle Valadez Graciano
Aqua-Tots Swim School Dunwoody – OctoDoor by Tamya Austin
Alloy Personal Training Dunwoody – Untitled by Hannah Garton
Bar{n} – Welcome Home by Marie Valbuena
Spruill Center for the Arts – Lily Stained Glass by Ellis Martin
Summit Coffee – Safari by Kseniia Kutsenko
Vintage Pizzeria – The Forests by Natalie Morales
Judy and Grace – Grace Mandala Door by Ella Breitkopf
Marlow’s Tavern – Golden Glimpse by Tamar Heled
Prelude Bookstore – Beyond the Walls by Kseniia Kutsenko
Dunwoody Prep – Fruit Door by Andie Fleckenstein
Stage Door Theatre – The Other Side of Ordinary by Allie Riordan
Ace Hardware – Enter the Black Hole by Ella Breitkopf
Village Threads – Fairy Light by Sofia Perez
