Week Two at the Parking Ramp witnessed 20+ volunteers of the APO Service Fraternity descend upon the parking ramp and leave behind lots of color in the stairwells. Part of the overall Virtual Reality project is to improve directions. Each level has a different color and symbol stenciled on each level.
It was a great weekend for public art!! The Dept of Public Art started work on the Water St. Parking Ramp, the Jablons and several helpers worked on mosaics on the planters on Water St. and Kady Perry, Bruce Greig and others began photographing for murals of children on the Flood Wall. The public seemed to appreciate the art too–spare change and dollar bills were donated freely to the DPA, "enough to buy 2-3 gallons of paint" according to organizers. "We are really heartened by the outpouring of support from people using the parking ramp. It is clear that people appreciate what we are doing to improve the ramp," commented Peg Johnston.
Here is a video of Day One, by videographer Mark Urban:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ26nqa2LuE
Video of Day Two, also by videographer Mark Urban; Music by local favorite Dan Pokorak:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PbTjfs_Dag
And there is such a need for improvements. Volunteers, cleaned the stairwells, scraped loose paint off walls, and put color blocks on each level. Artists painted stencils for each level too. The orange first level is the Bundy time clock, which became IBM and led to the computer; the next is green and is the Player Piano level; the blue level is for the Blue Box, the flight simulator that Ed Link invented on the ramp site, and finally the pink Dancer level that represents the Parking Ramp Dances sponsored by the American Dance Asylum.
If you are interested in volunteering, sign up here: www.tinyurl.com/DPAVolunteers.
Many more photos on the Facebook page Dept. of Public Art.