Nicole Allison is one of several artists being lured to Friendship and Garfield by the Penn Avenue Arists Initiative. Storefronts and parking spaces sit empty. Buildings sag under years of neglect. Drug dealers and prostitutes wait for the evening. Allison's studio, though, is whirling and twirling.
Wooden studs stand from floor to ceiling, awaiting plasterboard.
Construction workers move around, preparing for the January opening of Allison's Visionary Performing Arts Academy. Allison plans to teach jazz, tap, ballet, modern dance and African-American dance history to adults and children. She had no money and little business experience. Even so, Allison is the type of person neighborhood organizers want to attract to Penn Avenue. An anonymous foundation provided the money.