If you’re not paying attention, it’s sometimes easy to miss the subtler signs of a neighborhood reviving. Take an installation of wire sculptures, portraits of local residents, suspended from street lights high above eye level in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego. The work, an example of creative placemaking, is part of our partners’ efforts to stimulate commercial corridors in the historically struggling community. An article and video from the San Diego Union-Tribune tell more.
The excerpt below is from:
Public art in City Heights taken to new heights
By Debbi Baker, The San Diego Union-Tribune
There’s some new art hanging around City Heights that has drivers and pedestrians alike looking toward the sky.
The intricate wire sculptures, the work of El Cajon artist Spenser Little, are affixed to light posts along two of the city’s main thoroughfares. They depict some of the town’s residents holding objects or offering up positive messages.
There are eight of the fanciful portraits altogether – four in the vicinity of University and Wabash avenues and four along Fairmount Avenue near Orange and Polk avenues - and they all went went up in mid-June, Little said.
Each of the roughly 4 feet by 6 feet works of art was made using just one length of wire, not counting what was used to hang them. They were fashioned with pliers and various gauges of wire.
Little said the artworks are like a surprise that people don't always notice at first. "Then they let their eyes wander up and they see this thing that wasn't there before and it brings them a lot of joy," he said.
The project was a collaborative effort involving the City Heights Community Development Corporation, the City Heights Business Association, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and others who are part of the Fairmount Corridor Arts Collaborative. It's all part of an ongoing commitment to promote the arts throughout the Mid-City community, said Avital Aboody, the economic development manager of the City Heights development group. Continued[+]...