Art | Everywhere | AltDaily : Creating and celebrating local culture in Norfolk and all of Hampton Roads.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Art | Everywhere

Imagine a Granby Street with no empty store windows, with no boarded-up buildings, but instead a series of large-canvas public art projects that garner national attention. Imagine a Downtown Norfolk celebrated for its color, vibrancy, energy, and support of the arts.

For eight remarkable weeks, empty storefront windows along Granby Street in Downtown Norfolk will be transformed by art. The corridor will be one monumental gallery. The windows and facades of vacant properties will be the walls.

It will all commence with an opening night celebration on May 1, 2010 from 6 to 10 p.m., when we’ll fill the streets with art lovers. The festivities will include live entertainment, artist meet-and-greets, and dinner and drink specials in bars and restaurants all along Granby. It will be a multi-venue, walking celebration unlike any Norfolk has ever seen!

Close to 90 art proposals were received for consideration. Of those, 33 were accepted. These include a diverse range of styles and media; including installation, sculpture, photography, painting and film. Artists from New York, Washington D.C., Richmond and our own Hampton Roads region will be represented.

The show’s sponsors include AltDaily.com, Downtown Norfolk Council, GROW Interactive and re:vision Norfolk. It also benefits For Kids, an organization that works to break the cycle of homelessness for families and children.

For artists, Art|Everywhere is an opportunity to portray their creative vision on a larger-scale canvas than perhaps ever before or again, and for it to be seen by the masses. For downtown property owners, it’s an attractive way to highlight spaces for lease. And for viewers, it is an absolutely new and inspiring way of looking at and being in Downtown Norfolk.

Here is the Facebook event page. Join us there too, where there is also an active wall.

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MAP

Click here to download the PDF of our walking guide.

For parking options, areas of construction, and closed-off sidewalks, visit downtownnorfolk.org/map.

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OPENING NIGHT

Click here to download the opening night info as a PDF.

Specific specials include:

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CALENDAR

April 10                   Artist proposals due by noon
April 14                  Artists selected and notified
April 14-May 1      Art installed
May 1                      Opening night
May 1-August 1     Exhibition open

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PRECEDENTS

Above: an example of a similar project in San Francisco.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
“When artists and art world fellow travelers populate a neighborhood, economic improvement frequently follows, as developers and urban planners have long noted. Artists working, exhibiting and partying can make a neighborhood appear hip and fashionable, attracting people with money to spend, who eventually attract new businesses to the area, and so on.”

Above: an example of art in a dark Sydney laneway

According to the Sydney Morning Herald:
“GLITTER is an unconventional crime-fighting tool, but it will feature prominently tonight in a project that
will use art to fight crime by creating a temporary gallery in a Sydney laneway. The Temperance Lane gallery artist
and curator Mark Titmarsh says he wants the gallery to turn the laneway from a “dead zone” to a place of art
and culture.”