LAS VEGAS >> A T-shaped alley behind a row of bars and restaurants in the Fremont East district of downtown Las Vegas wasn’t the type of area a visitor would explore.

The tall walls bordering businesses between Las Vegas Boulevard, Sixth Street, Fremont Street and Carson Avenue were lined with gas meters, electrical boxes and about 40 trash bins.

But a project by the dT Alley Community Coalition Inc. has revitalized the alley, adorning its concrete walls with vibrant murals, transforming utility boxes into whimsical creatures and replacing the trash bins with flower boxes and interactive pop-ups.

“I stumbled upon this project about eight years ago,” Todd Kessler, president of the nonprofit coalition, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Each tenant had dumpsters and it would attract dumpster divers and a lot of debris related to that. I figured out a way to centralize the trash. That opened it up for more thoughtful things for (the alley) to be.”

Kessler swapped trash bins for industrial rubbish carts that are cordoned off in a section of a parking lot and wheeled half a block to a trash compactor for the Fremont Street Experience casino pedestrian mall.

Kessler dubbed the new space Downtown Alley, stylized as dT Alley, and put out a social media call for artists.

Sissy Murphy was one who responded. At a Feb. 20 dedication ceremony, she worked on her “Alice in Wonderland” painting covering an electrical box and an adjacent street light.

Murphy’s son, 26-year-old Hunter Wilson, claimed a nearby telephone pole where he designed a multicolored snake that slithers down onto the pavement.

“Everything was kind of dark,” said Wilson, citing the moodier hues in the surrounding murals. “I wanted to do something really bright and colorful.”

Several artists worked in the days and weeks leading up to the grand opening to line the walkways with paintings and interactive installations.

“This is about culture and art and entertainment, music and creativity,” Mayor Carolyn Goodman said at the dedication. “We are setting records around this country about innovative things that we’re doing and everybody looks at Las Vegas.”

The nearby 9th Bridge School tends to a take-one-leave-one library with about 30 volumes. A community piano, a puppet theater and a confessional in which visitors are encouraged to share secrets are among other installations.

Caridad Gardens, a group that uses urban agriculture to empower formerly homeless veterans, plans to cultivate a community garden.

The dT alley opening follows other recent art-focused renovations in the downtown area, including the opening of Fergusons Downtown, a renovated former 1940s-era motel featuring shops, restaurants and community space; the Golden Goose installation at a pedestrian-friendly East Fremont lot; and completion of a large mural titled “Mermaids Don’t Wear Skirts,” on a Western Motel wall at Ninth and Fremont streets.