Photo by Alyse Horn
Amy Novelli and Gus Dieker work on the top portion of the mural on Wednesday, July 6.

By Alyse Horn

The side of the Allegheny City Brewing building, 507 Foreland St., is getting beautified.

Residents who walk by will notice “Deutschtown!” painted on the building, accompanied by birds, music notes, and even a Christmas pickle.

“Folks said, ‘We gotta have a Christmas pickle, cause that’s from Deutschtown,’” said Amy Novelli, the artist who designed the mural.

Novelli and Gus Dieker started work on the mural on June 29 and will be working on it up until July 20. The duo will continue their work over the weekend during the Deutschtown Music Festival and encouraged attendees to stop and say hello.

On Saturday, Novelli and Dieker will be adding silhouettes to the bottom half of the mural that were created from “actual photographs of neighborhood people.” Novelli said the middle of the mural will read “Picture Yourself Here.”

Novelli said she will also be adding rainbow triangles within the “W” during the music festival “because of all the horrible things” that have been happening to those in the LGBTQ community.

“That theme kind of echo’s [throughout the mural],” Novelli said.

Funding for the mural came from the East Allegheny Community Council through a grant from the One Northside Community Grant Fund at the Sprout Fund. The total cost of the mural is $10,000.

For updates on the mural, visit the Deutschtown Mural Project Facebook page.