Tampa's Downtown Partnership wants 150 colorful banners to grace streetlight poles and raise money for charity.
By SHERRI DAY
Published November 11, 2005
On a mission to spruce up the city's urban core, the Tampa Downtown Partnership issued a call for artists earlier this week.
The agency wants to outfit 150 streetlight poles with vibrant, colorful banners.
Called Urban Atmospheres, the project would reproduce local artists' works on banners that will hang on downtown light poles from January to March. The public can bid on the artwork at a fundraising auction in March. Proceeds will benefit two charities, which have not been selected, and the continued funding of the public art program, said Lynda Remund, the Downtown Partnership's program director.
"It's a fun project, and it really adds a lot of vibrancy and activity to the downtown core," Remund said. "Our goal is (to make it) an annual project."
Urban Atmospheres is an offshoot of Growing Panes, the Downtown Partnership's public arts project earlier this year that featured 4-by-8-foot murals on the windows of dilapidated buildings.
Growing Panes, which displayed Tampa-inspired scenes created by local artists and schoolchildren, gained praise for embellishing Franklin Street relics including the Kress, Maas Brothers and Griffin buildings. The exhibit's auction raised more than $8,000 for the Sam Rampello Downtown Partnership School.
Because builders plan to redevelop many of the structures that showcased the murals, the project's steering committee had to come up with another idea, organizers said. After considering another mural project or street art, which would have featured painted roads, the committee chose the banners.
Organizers are seeking vertical pieces that can be re-created on banners. The deadline to enter photographs or originals is at the end of this month. In December, the Urban Atmospheres committee will select up to 15 artists' works. The works should reflect the project's theme, Windows to the City. Organizers suggest that entries feature images or ideas that highlight Tampa's social, economical and historical dimensions. Selected artists will receive $500, Remund said.
The Downtown Partnership plans to ask corporations to pay for the banners, which will include company logos.
"Local artists and the local arts community has really not been explored very deeply," said committee member Greg Minder, president of the Intowngroup, which is building the SkyPoint condominium tower on Ashley Drive with the Novare Group. "The greater opportunity to expose our populous to them is really very important."
- Got a banner idea? Contact the Tampa Downtown Partnership at 813 221-3686 or www.tampasdowntown.com Sherri Day can be reached at sday@sptimes.com or 813 226-3405.
