Spidey' film crew to join fight to rescue dreary downtown
CLEVELAND, Ohio, April 10, 2006
Plain Dealer - Rachel Dissell
A Madison-Avenue-style remake of Euclid Avenue could help a local group brightening vacant store windows with local art.
The crew of "Spider-Man 3" will scrub several blocks of Euclid Avenue east of Tower City, said Kate O'Neil, a film producer who in December jump-started the arts group Exhibit: Cleveland. Workers will pressure-wash building exteriors and windows, light storefronts and fill them with colorful paintings and sculptures from mostly local artists, she said.
"It's an amazing benefit for the city," O'Neil said. "Euclid Avenue will be left looking better than it does now."
Sony Pictures will film part of "Spider-Man 3" in the city this week, and Euclid Avenue will become a New York City street scene.
O'Neil, 36, grew up in Chagrin Falls and lived in New York for seven years before returning to Cleveland two years ago. O'Neil said she defended the city to New Yorkers. But when she returned, she was dejected to see parts of Cleveland's downtown looking ramshackle and abandoned. While visiting film festivals in other cities, she noticed how well they showcased local artists' works.
"Cleveland has a vibrant arts community and brilliant artists, but if you don't know where to find them, they're not very visible to the public," she said.
So, O'Neil and Kevin Kerwin, her husband and partner in the project, decided to spruce up a few dingy storefronts on their own.
They started in December with a dark and dusty double window front on East Fourth Street. After cleaning up the space, volunteer Ed McGuire designed and built inexpensive easels and the group used construction-style lights from a home-improvement store to illuminate brightly-colored art and the street. They gathered the art and manpower from neighbors in the downtown Hyacinth Lofts and Tower Press buildings.
After that site got recognition, in January the group lighted and gathered displays for 18-foot wide windows in the historic May Company Building.
Ted Wochna, who manages the building for the Grubb & Ellis real estate firm, said the project brought a street-level presence to the building again. "I had windows with nothing in them," he said. "It was just a gutted building."
He said Grubb & Ellis will ask the group to tackle the windows on the Prospect Avenue side of the building after some construction work is finished.
O'Neil said the project lights up the streets, making them safer, exposes people to local art and deters vandalism of the unoccupied buildings.
Recently, she took her idea to the Civic Innovation Lab, which gives start-up funding and mentoring to folks who have project ideas that improve the city. The Lab also supported the Cool Cleveland free weekly e-mail and City Wheels, which will offer city residents fuel-efficient cars to rent at hourly rates. The Lab gave O'Neil $30,000 and a mentor: Michael Obi, a senior vice president at KeyBank.
It was originally O'Neil's plan to make Euclid Avenue a yearlong, one-building-at-a-time project. But when "Spider-Man 3" decided to swing into town, things changed.
The movie folks got O'Neil's name, and they negotiated collaboration.
O'Neil said the crew would hopefully leave behind some spare lights and extension cords in exchange for her help.
When the crew leaves, Exhibit: Cleveland will reconfigure the window art -- the group is aiming for the first week of May -- and strive to switch out the pieces every three months.
Artists interested in having their work displayed can submit a proposal via www.exhibitcleveland.com.
A jury will select the pieces and make suggestions on the displays. Anyone interested in buying displayed pieces can contact artists through the Web site. <BACK TO NEWS AND EVENTS |