Nothing says bah humbug! to a commercial strip than an empty retail space. In a program designed to activate empty spaces created by light rail construction on the Hill — including turning the empty Broadway Jack in the Box into a gallery at one point — Sound Transit is hiring artists to create installations in empty Broadway retail spaces. The first is now installed in the southeast corner of the Joule building at Broadway and Republican.
The works is a collaboration of artists Sam Trout, Celeste Cooning, Paul D McKee, and Matthew Parker. You can learn more about the installation and see several more pictures here. Artist Trout has also posted about the project:
Yes, that is Donner
I was asked by Seattle Sound Transit and the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce to art direct a window installation to help brighten up some of the vacant spaces on Broadway. This week I was blessed to work with my good friend Matthew Parker and top Seattle artists Celeste Cooning and Paul D McKee.
It started with a meeting with DK Pan who told me about the project and asked me to be involved. My lovely lady Emma Lavin reminded me that I had been wanting to do an installation that uses the Ice Queen Dresses that were made for the 2010 Fremont Solstice Parade. That got my mind working on a vision and over the next couple of days I knew who I wanted to work with and exactly how I wanted it to look. I contacted the artists and in about three days we were able to get the pieces together and install this winter wonderland that we are all very proud of.
In the past, CHS has tried to bring you word of calls for artists on these projects but we found out about this holiday project during a Broadway stroll. If you’re interested in being part of the Sound Transit art program, check out http://www.soundtransit.org/Projects-Home/STart-Public-Art-Program.xml
Let’s create another installation that at Joule that resembles a Whole Foods busy with happy, healthy shoppers.
And for each of the many “missing teeth” along the Broadway strip, let’s fill their windows with highly realistic renderings of the bustling interior of the last business establishment to occupy the space.
That would be pretty rad….
I am confused. Why is sound transit paying for this at the Joule? What is the connection between the Joule and SoundTransit?
Remove the obnoxious advertising on the red wall for the locksmith and the book store. Let them advertise somewhere else and not make a crappy looking hole look even worse.