Midtown Columbus is getting a lot more colorful for the holidays thanks to a new project
A community partnership has brought professional and student artists together to help revitalize a major Columbus corridor.
It’s called Light Up Midtown, organized by MidTown Inc., and it’s scheduled to debut Nov. 21.
There will be four permanent murals and at least 10 temporary pieces of public art illuminated at night along 13th Street, between 10th and 13th avenues.
Curated by Columbus State University associate professor of art Hannah Israel, the project will feature permanent murals at:
- 1323 11th Ave., the Ankerpak Building, where the mural will be painted by Andrew College associate professor of art Chris Johnson and five of his students. Johnson painted the mural on Heritage Tower in downtown Columbus.
- 1103 13th St., where the mural will be designed by CSU graduate Tori Neundorfer, a freelance artist and an educator at Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center, and painted by midtown resident Ralph Frank, a graphic designer and sign painter.
- 1110 13th St., Zoe’s Pediatrics, where the mural will be painted by CSU graduate Jeremy McCrary, teaches art at Kendrick High School and owns Brush Central, offering commissioned artwork and youth summer camps.
- 1133 13th St., Mentoring & Behavioral Services, where the mural will be painted by CSU graduate Estella McLendon, a commissioned artist and a nurse.
Inspiration for Light Up Midtown
The idea for this project, according to MidTown Inc. Executive Director Julio Portillo, came from a brainstorming session.
It happened after Columbus Council approved in February 2018 a plan to add on-street parking and reduce the number of lanes on 13th Street from four to two, so traffic would slow down to help redevelopment speed up.
That road project is expected to start in March, but MidTown Inc., the nonprofit organization dedicated to the area’s development, doesn’t want to wait until then to start boosting the corridor.
“What MidTown Inc. has championed is trying to promote and foster economic growth through vibrancy,” Portillo told the Ledger-Enquirer. “We believe mobility is key to that. So as we anticipate the 13th Street road project, what’s the next part of that? We’re providing great on-road facilities, with parallel and diagonal parking, lower speeds. We’re bringing access to all of these storefronts, so the next part of that is beautification.”
Portillo explained the challenge.
“Right now, as you’re driving through, you don’t even turn; you don’t even look anywhere,” he said. “It’s pretty much get in your car to go from A to B when you’re going down 13th Street. But we’re hoping that people just take the time, while they look at a mural, to reimagine and think about the potential of this corridor.”
Approximately $35,000 has been secured for Light Up Midtown, Portillo said, mostly through:
- $17,000 from the Knight Fund at the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley
- $15,000 from South Arts
- $2,000 from Georgia Power.
MidTown is seeking another $5,000 to complete the project as envisioned.
“This project is a true testament to community partnerships,” Portillo said.
CSU students help re-imagine Midtown
Israel, who also directs CSU’s Illges Gallery, assigned the Light Up Midtown temporary installations to the seven students in her professional practice class this semester.
“We gave each student parameters of visiting the space, thinking about what can trigger excitement and liven up the area,” she told the L-E.
The students are being treated like professionals. They are getting paid stipends and learning the business side of art, such as writing grants, proposing concepts and invoicing bills.
Israel also wants her students to experience the power of what their art can do to a public space — and to the people who view it.
“I think art is that type of vehicle that addresses issues in a community that might be a little bit uncomfortable,” she said, “but at the same time it also points out different potential in how we can re-imagine our communities.”
Putting a face on art in Columbus
CSU junior art major Carlie Hedges chose to echo the Light Up Midtown revitalization theme in her temporary installation: painting on discarded skateboards images of diverse people wearing masks to lessen the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hedges, a graduate of Shaw High School, plans to have at least 20 boards done by the Nov. 21 debut. They will model social distancing by hanging at least 6 feet apart on the fence across from the Cuckoo’s Nest Skate Shop, 1326 10th Ave.
“I want to give a visual reminder that people can connect to social distance and wearing masks, especially in a time when it’s kind of fading out,” she told the L-E.
Hedges is grateful for the chance to be more involved and benefit her hometown.
“As an artist, it’s really easy to just sit there and draw all day and just do your art,” she said. “… A lot of times, public art calls us to action. It’s kind of our job as artists to inspire people when times are tough.”
CSU senior art major Khayla Shephard’s temporary installation will be a digital projection of 20 animated and diverse faces on a vacant building at the corner of 13th Street and Cherry Avenue.
“Me being a person of color, I don’t want to be on the street at night in the dark because of certain things that happen,” she told the L-E. “So I like to talk a lot about identity within my work. I have many heads amalgamating and moving through each other to talk about identity, loss of identity and how it feels to be in that space for that person at that time.”
Shephard, from Atlanta, hopes her artwork will provoke a “visceral connection” with the public.
“The more you’re around something, the more you’re existing in that space and the artistic realm, it’s easier to start to understand those conversations,” she said, “and it’s easier to bridge the gap between the everyday-looking norm and this installation of artwork and art piece that people think goes over their heads.”
‘A little big of sweat equity’
On a warm afternoon, Johnson took a break from the mural he and his crew of five Andrew College students were painting on the Ankerpak Building, 1323 11th Ave.
Johnson told the L-E this project is “an awesome collaborative work. … It’s a really easy and cost-effective way to make a humongous impact. A little bit of paint and a little bit of sweat equity can really, really, really elevate and transform an area. It’s also a cool thing when people see the process.”
Their mural is a tribute to the Chattahoochee River, including depictions of perch, catfish, gar, bass, snake, frog, crawfish, duck, turtle and alligator, as well as the rapids.
“I enjoy the river, I enjoy wildlife, and I kind of responded to that,” he said. “The more I kept researching, the more interesting species I found and wanted to include. There’s just a ton of diversity.”
How to donate
To help MidTown Inc. complete its fundraising for this project, donations can be made on its website, MidTownColumbusGa.org, with a note that the contribution is for the Light Up Midtown project.
