Flint Public Art Project's Free City Fest Reclaims Razed Chevy Site
Raphaele Shirley, Spinning Circle/Shooting Cloud, 2013. (RA Littlewolf and Whisper Willow)
The ongoing efforts of artists and designers to reignite the spark of downtown development in aging industrial cities face no simple task. But as architects and developers begin to put pencil to paper, the best public art projects draw on the spiritual side of that renewal.
Flint, Michigan’s inaugural Free City Festival, held May 3-5, did just that when it revived a mile-long stretch of now-razed Chevrolet plants with public art, transformational lighting displays and a reverberating gospel choir.
Ann Arbor-based artist Michael Flynn installed an inflatable likeness of Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate. (Courtesy of Flint Public Art Project)
“There was a such a sense of heaviness about this space. It was a place where so many people worked,” said Stephen Zacks, executive director of the Flint Public Art Project. “It’s a kind of cleansing experience, for it to no longer be a blank space.”
They installed more than 75 projects, including work by NAO, Srjdan Jovanovic Weiss’s firm, Boston-based architect Jae K. Kim, Flint’s Freeman Greer, Ann Arbor-based architect Catie Newell of Alibi Studio, New York-based architects Matthias Neumann and Natalia Roumeliotian, and an inflatable shelter by Michael Flynn modeled after Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate in Chicago (above).
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- Belfast artist Deidre Robb installed Chevy-in-the-Hole Art Flag Bunting and a wishing tree to reflect on the city’s identity. (RA Littlewolf and Whisper Willow)
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- Chevy Plants (foreground) by Flint-based architect Freeman Greer. (RA Littlewolf and Whisper Willow)
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- Ann Arbor-based artist Michael Flynn installed an inflatable likeness of Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate. (Courtesy of Flint Public Art Project)
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- Entry pavilion designed by NAO. NAO / Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Shelby Elizabeth Doyle, engineer consultant: Yong-wook Jo / Arup, artist consultant: Paul Swenbeck. (RA Littlewolf and Whisper Willow)
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- Free City lighting (Courtesy of Flint Public Art Project)
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- James Rojas, Imagine Flint workshop, 2013. (James Rojas)
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- Space Between the Rail and the Fence. NAO / Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Shelby Elizabeth Doyle, Jason Harrell. (RA Littlewolf and Whisper Willow)
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- W.A.S.H., Rachel Higgins in collaboration with Kate O. Miles, 2013. A temporary sauna built on site heated with a wood-burning stove. (Raphaele Shirley)
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- Jesse Sugarmann, We Build Excitement, 2013. (RA Littlewolf and Whisper Willow)
The festival was produced with funding from ArtPlace, a consortium of national foundations in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The organizers are looking for sponsors to help repeat their success next year.
It isn’t the only public art plot to rejuvenate the one-time home of General Motors. Recently London-based Two Islands took first place in the inaugural Flat Lot Competition, floating plans to erect a mirror-clad foreclosure icon that would douse a downtown public square with cool mists on hot summer days.
“There are things people think they know about Flint, but aren’t really reflective of the city today,” Zacks said. “If we can create great spaces, we can start to consolidate a new image and identity of the place.”