In the middle of Carnegie, in Melbourne's southeast, a little oasis of nature and art stands out.
The beautification project was the initiative of Italian-Australian artist Rita Santucci who, three years ago, noticed some children walking through a dilapidated alley to get to Carnegie Primary School.
Seeing how bad its condition was, but also realising its aesthetic potential, Ms Santucci decided to roll up her sleeves, kickstarting the project that ended up involving an entire community.
Her first intervention was to hang her ceramic works in the alley to cover tags and graffiti on the walls.
As soon as she began working on it, the idea of revitalising the alley spread like a wildfire and soon her neighbours came on board.
Rita Santucci in her workshop Source: Rita Santucci
With the help of volunteers, the fences alongside the alley were painted fresh, and a was created to ask the community for art contributions.
Ms Santucci's 'guerilla gardening' and art project then extended into the nearby Laz’s Lane and stretched to the other side of Koornang Road into another street.
The locals now call this alley 'Rita’s Way'.
It’s a work of beauty that belongs to the community. There was nothing before but concrete.
From its humble beginning, the project has grown into a real community art gallery that boasts of more than one hundred pieces of art and recently installed planter boxes.
Beautification in the alleys with planter boxes Source: Rita Santucci
A tourist attraction
Ms Santucci says the community project is open to everyone, from children to professional artists.
The coronavirus pandemic this year has slowed down the progress of the project, but she says it is a nice distraction from COVID-19.
“My plan is to cover every alley in Carnegie with art and plants. There are plenty of alleys with lots of potential,” Ms Santucci tells SBS Italian. “Now it has become a tourist attraction and many people come visiting.”
Rita's Way Source: Rita Santucci
She says her desire to combine art and nature comes from her parents, who moved to Australia in the 50s from their native Abruzzo in Italy.
Her dad arrived in Melbourne first and waited for her mother to make her way Down Under. They married on the day she arrived in Australia.
Her father owns a big veggie patch and loves nature, while her mother was a seamstress with a great artistic sense.
Ms Santucci says she learned sewing and mending from her mum, the skills that along with a penchant for recycling has helped her for this project during the past three years.
Ceramics and bike in Rita's Way. Source: Rita Santucci
The result can be seen at 'Rita’s Way', a community project that, like a tree, wants to grow bigger and bigger.
