The first step towards the rebirth for one of Buffalo's historically neglected neighborhoods the East Side's Northland Corridor, Shantell Martin's drawing "Dance Every Day" is a signal of things to come for the long-struggling community. Much of the plant will be demolished as part of a $42 million Buffalo Billion-funded revamp of the Northland Corridor into a hub for light industry and commerce that is being run by the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation. The work is the product of a collaboration between the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's public art program and the University at Buffalo's fledgling Creative Arts Initiative. 

"Dance Every Day", Martin's largest ever public art piece, was completed over a weekend in June. In that time, she worked with Buffalo artist Scott Bye and used several cans of spray-paint to transform the whitewashed wall into what many are seeing as a joyful reflection of a neighborhood creaking slowly back to life.

"What I do is playful. I feel like a big kid. What I do, I love it, and I enjoy it," she said. "And even if I come in in a bad mood, like 10 minutes later, I'm in a really great mood because I'm doing something I love. And I think people should do more of that."

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(Buffalo, 2017)