By Blake Deshazo | The Selma Times-Journal

People visit Selma all the time to see the Edmund Pettus Bridge and take a few pictures as they walk over, but three local artists are trying to change that by giving people something else to look at when they come to town.

A.C. Reeves, Anne Strand and Charlie “Tin Man” Lucas are planning an art walk every month on the first Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.

“People want to come to Selma, but we’ve got to give them something to come see,” Reeves said. “We’re really hoping that this can bring other artists downtown and that maybe they can set up in some of these vacant buildings too.”

Reeves said an art walk was planned before, but things didn’t go quite as planned because of the distance between each gallery.

“It was an art walk, but it wasn’t a walk,” Reeves said. “Nobody could walk to it.”

Each studio on the new art walk is within a block or two of the other. Reeves’ gallery, Southland Studios, is located at 120 Lauderdale St. Strand’s gallery, Anne Strand Designs, is located at 26 Broad St. and Lucas’ gallery is at 9 Lauderdale St.

“When mom and I shared a studio we would see so many tourists come to town without anything to do, looking for a bottle of water, just wanting something to do,” Reeves said.

“I just feel like this is a baby step to something that could open up like a can of biscuits. We have all the pieces. It is just putting the pieces together.”

First Sunday Art Walk will start off featuring Reeves, Strand and Lucas, but they hope it lures more artists to bring their art to downtown Selma.

“I was shocked when I came to Selma and saw how many artists there are,” Strand said. “There are so many artists and so many good artists, and that is just a treasure in this town.”

Lucas, who recently moved his gallery to Lauderdale Street, hopes the walk will make downtown a happening place again and attract tourists to check out more of Selma than just its history.

“Give somebody something to look at. I’ve seen people walk down through here peeping in my window, but just think if you had that on both sides of the road,” Lucas said. “I’m asking the city to jump on this bandwagon, and let’s pull something great out of this city. We have the bridge, the artists, the art walk. We can do this if we be patient enough”

The First Morning Art Walk starts this Saturday, Oct. 1, and will be from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m.