Artists Turning West Palm Beach Into Giant Outdoor Museum

Over the past week, a swarm of local and international artists have been working in parks and vacant lots in West Palm Beach, transforming the spaces into a giant outdoor museum. It’s part of a larger strategy by the city’s planners that goes beyond aesthetics. “I came out here to install a 25-foot metal paper airplane.” said Los Angeles-based welder Griffin Loop. “It’s based around the message of setting intention to launching it into action.” The idea? Turn the whole city into a world-class outdoor museum, accessible to the everyone, year-round. It’s called CANVAS. “We signed an access agreement with the city giving us the right to be able to create these installations on these parks,” said CANVAS founder and curator Nicole Henry. “Eventually West Palm Beach will become a giant outdoor museum.” The project is part of West Palm Beach’s focus on using art and culture to forge its own identity among arts communities in South Florida – like Wynwood in Miami and the FAT Village Arts District in Ft. Lauderdale. “We’ve really seized on art as a really powerful tool to make us authentic and original,” said Raphael Clemente, Executive Director of the Downtown Development Authority in West Palm Beach. “People factor those things in when they make decisions about where they go, where they invest, where they spend their money and their time. It has to have the prerequisites of: safe, clean, accessible. But once you get to that, who are you and what’s your character and personality as a place?” Every two years the city randomly surveys residents and visitors about impressions of the downtown area. Clemente says the positive impressions are increasing, with respondents citing aesthetic beauty as a top draw.
Read Full Article