Old Town Greenwood is about to get more colorful.
From traffic boxes to concrete walls to sidewalks near storm drains, city officials are investing more in public art in downtown Greenwood.
Traffic boxes
Earlier this year, the city launched a traffic box art program with a pilot program of four boxes at Main Street and Madison Avenue and Main and Meridian streets. The program, a direct response to “strong public interest” in expanding arts and beautification efforts outlined in the city’s new comprehensive plan, is a public art initiative aimed at transforming everyday infrastructure into vibrant works of art, said Alyssa Liebman, city planner.
What started with three boxes has now expanded to include an additional 10 boxes in Old Town, for a total of 14. These boxes are located along Madison Avenue and Meridian Street, from Smith Valley Road to Euclid Avenue, Liebman said.
“We got overwhelmingly positive feedback [from the pilot], so we were like, ‘Let’s do all of Old Town,’” she said.
The city’s RDC approved giving an additional $5,000 for the program to finish the boxes in Old Town. This is a total of $15,000, Liebman said.
A request for proposals is planned to be sent out for the second round of the program later this fall, Liebman said, but this is not the only art project being planned out.
An Old Town mural
Last month, the RDC granted officials $8,000 for a mural on a concrete retention wall adjacent to Walker’s Plaza.
The mural was designed in a postcard style that says “Greetings from Old Town Greenwood.” Inside the word Greenwood, which is the largest word on the mural, are images and renderings that represent the city’s history.
The “G” features Polk Tomato Cannery, the “R” features an old street car while a classic car takes up both the “R” and the first “E.” From the second “E” to the N” are buildings representing the intersection of Main and Madison Avenue. The “W” features the Greenwood Amphitheater, while the “O’s” feature Pleasant Creek and people playing pickleball, and the “D” features the clock in downtown Greenwood, a cyclist using a trail and the sign for the city’s “Art on the Trail.”
Plans for the mural materialized after the city completed streetscape and infrastructure improvements on a portion of Market Plaza. Part of this work included adding the concrete retention wall adjacent to Walker’s Plaza, which had an entrance removed.
“Right now, it’s just a blank concrete wall,” Liebman said. “We were like, that would be a great spot for a mural.”
City officials wanted to “give” Old Town an identity and culture by turning it into an artsy area and showcasing local artists, she said.
The mural is designed by RLR Associates, an Indianapolis design studio that specializes in environmental graphics, branding and wayfinding. RLR previously worked with Greenwood to design its wayfinding signage system, with the mural being a continuation of that partnership to “create designs that connect people to the spaces they live work and gather in,” said Corbin Lorntz, an experiential graphic designer with the firm who is working on the mural.
“The goal [of the mural] is to create something vibrant, welcoming and timeless. The design that not only celebrates Greenwood, but also creates a memorable landmark downtown,” Lorntz said.
City officials sent a lot of historical pictures to RLR for the mural. RLR used the pictures as inspiration and made illustrations representing them, he said.
For the mural, an “exterior-grade film” will be wrapped on the concrete wall. This gives designers more flexibility to have the graphics on the mural exactly as they want them, Lorntz said.
Not using paint has another purpose. It makes it easier for the city to swap out the films in the future if they want to update them, he said.
To place the mural, designers will print film sheets that will be wrapped onto the wall in stages. The end result will be a mural that is durable and highly visible, Lorntz said.
Work is expected to begin on the mural sometime in the fall, with the goal of getting it done before cold weather arrives, Liebman said.
Storm drain murals
A few blocks north, the beginnings of another art program are evident: storm drain murals. At the T-intersection of Madison and Euclid avenues, a mural of Koi fish swimming into a storm drain greets those walking in front of Zimmer Village Shops.
Amy Barile, the owner of Teal Canary Art Studio, painted the mural, the first as part of the city’s new Stormwater Drain Mural program. Teal Canary is located inside Zimmer Village.
“It’s where I create, I teach, I connect with the community,” Barile said. “Having that mural right there in front just feels like an extension of my space; it’s just flowing outward from the studio and into the public. I don’t really have a lot of people who know that I exist.”
Money for the program was given to the planning department by the stormwater department to promote their education programs. The murals are designed to bring awareness to water pollution, Liebman said.
Everything that enters a storm drain flows directly into creeks, rivers and waterways untreated. By keeping litter, chemicals and yard waste out of the drains, residents help protect water quality and the wildlife that depend on it, city officials say.
In the case of the location of the first mural, it’s right next to a drain that flows into Pleasant Creek. The initial design would’ve said this, but the artwork was “so beautiful” it didn’t need the words, Liebman said.
Barile was approached by the city directly for the mural, which is now the third large mural she’s done in Johnson County.
City officials told Barile the idea for the storm drain mural program, asking for her opinion and whether she’d help them kick off the project. She agreed.
The whole idea of bringing art to public spaces is to get people to pause, think and appreciate the beauty of the environment, Barile said. She wanted people to pause and think about what the mural was about, she said.
“This is by far the smallest mural I’ve ever done. Most of my work is much larger than this, but there’s something really powerful about its placement on the sidewalk,” Barile said.
Barile wanted to focus on the idea of clarity and purity in our water system, and officials said they wanted to emphasize that people should not litter there. So she came up with the idea of something “very fluid, very clean” and “almost floaty,” she said.
She used a rich palette of blues to evoke depth and transparency, and used Koi fish to symbolize balance, flow and harmony. Koi fish in general represent transformation and resilience, Barile said, adding that it was something she didn’t know until she started working on the project. It tracked with how she felt while doing the artwork, she said.
“It fits really beautifully with them and just protecting our environment,” Barile said.
For both the traffic box art and storm drain murals, officials would like to see more local artists apply. While a local artist was chosen for the drain mural, only out-of-town artists applied for the first round of traffic box art, Liebman said.
Those interested in participating in the traffic box art or storm drain mural programs can email their designs to publicart@greenwood.in.gov.