Vergez ’05 uplifts Cleveland neighborhoods through Transformative Art Fund project

How can you bring long-term transformation to a neighborhood through art?

That thought-provoking question inspired Ariel Vergez ’05 to create Murals to Uplift the Human Spirit, a project that will help beautify Cleveland’s Clark Fulton and Stockyards neighborhoods through gardens, murals and handmade sculptures.

Last January, the city of Cleveland announced the Transformative Art Fund grant program, which presented local artists with an opportunity to create American Rescue Plan-funded artwork around Cleveland. Applicants were required to live in the city, partner with a Cleveland institution and propose a project that reflects the rich cultural communities throughout the city.

After three months of deliberation and more than 100 applicants, a selection committee awarded $393,700 to Vergez for his project to restore and revitalize Storer Avenue and nearby empty lots.

“Murals to Uplift the Human Spirit is one of seven Transformative Arts Fund lead artists that will work over the next 13 months to bring their vision to life,” says Rhonda K. Brown, the city of Cleveland’s Senior Strategist of the Arts Culture & Creative Economy.

“The City of Cleveland believes in the profound power of art to transform communities; and that each project has the capacity to transcend boundaries, inspire social change, educate, evoke emotion and ignite the human spirit,” Brown adds. “We look forward to the amplification of his artistic practice on Storer Avenue.”

Creative vision

Diversity and art have always been foundational to Vergez—born in the Dominican Republic, raised in Miami—and his creative process. As an Industrial Design major at the Cleveland Institute of Art, he honed his inclination toward inclusive art by taking advantage of the College’s expansive curriculum.

“I love the Cleveland Institute of Art. My love was always art, and then design was the applied art,” Vergez says. “So, during school, I would be in the print shop or the Foundation drawing class–even though I was way past Foundation drawing. I tried to sneak into a few figure Drawing and Painting classes to learn as much as I could. I had a great, wide breadth of art experience there that shaped how I work today.”

That breadth of experience will be evident in Murals to Uplift the Human Spirit, which will employ elements of humanity, community and nature to help beautify those West Side neighborhoods through a three-pronged approach. 

First, Vergez will create The Art Garden for his institutional partner Metro West Community Development Organization, a nonprofit that works to revitalize Stockyards, Clark-Fulton and Brooklyn Centre neighborhoods. The garden will use foliage, flowers and botany as a symbolic tool to promote and celebrate diversity.

The second phase will involve adding a mix of gardening and mini-sculptures to empty lots in the area. At the center of each lot will be Vergez's signature flower spine sculpture, depicting a vertebral column stemming into a budding flower.

The final stage of the project seeks to repurpose a burned-down house that Vergez calls La Casa Fuego, or “The Fire House.” La Casa Fuego would become a community safe space for neighborhood residents to host outreach events and use recreationally.

“A healthy garden is an ecosystem that allows other things to have a home,” Vergez says. “And in that same way, it’s like ‘How can we create an ecosystem?’ Through beauty, through connection so that all these houses can be homes and all these lots can have a purpose and path.”

Community involvement

Vergez plans to use this opportunity to highlight community-based art by recruiting local youth to learn and contribute to his project through his No Pressure, No Diamonds program. The program will take 16 to 20 amateur artists through a four-session course that will teach them the basics of Vergez’s artistic process. The ultimate goal is for the students to evolve to the point where they can help work on the murals themselves.

“The main purpose is to keep the education local. Teaching the up-and-coming artists is the main focus and motivation of this program. The murals are a visual representation of that tutelage and process,” Vergez says.

Vergez also plans to enlist experienced Cleveland-based artists to help bring this project to life.

“A lot of times, when they want art around the city, they will outsource it internationally or from different states. So, it means so much that we can create a project of this size with local hands. It will mean more to the residents of this area,” Vergez says.

Ward 14 support

Although Vergez already planned for his project to rejuvenate the area, he didn’t realize how overdue for an upgrade it was until he spoke with Councilwoman Jasmin Santana, who represents the Clark-Fulton and Stockyards neighborhoods in Cleveland’s Ward 14.

“Our visions lined up where mine could be more narrowly applied to aid in her vision,” Vergez says.

Once a thriving area for Latinos and refugees, it began to decline in the late 2000s. In the years that followed, it received little to no investments. As a lifelong Clevelander who grew up in the Stockyards neighborhood, Santana was dedicated to restoring the area to its former glory.

“Securing investment for this area has been an ongoing challenge as developers, foundations and organizations have been reluctant to be the first to invest in a neighborhood with such significant blight,” Santana says. “However, I never gave up on the vision of beautifying the Stockyards, creating an art hub, and aligning with plans to renovate storefronts, create pocket parks on vacant lots, plant trees and rebuild infrastructure.”

As the city’s first Latina to serve as a council member, Santana sought to share her vision of diversity and representation with Vergez.

“Once the [Transformative Art Fund] initiative was announced, I prioritized sharing the opportunity with as many Latino artists as possible,” Santana says. “It was fortunate that Ariel and his team and Metro West Community Development Organization shared a similar vision—using art to drive economic development. This investment, aligned with public and private dollars, will be truly transformational. We are deeply grateful to Metro West and Ariel’s team for their aligned vision, which allowed our proposal to blossom into something truly compelling.”

Murals to Uplift the Human Spirit began construction in August and will continue through September 2025.