(Above) Rendering of The Wabash Lights, an art project being built under the elevated L tracks on Wabash Avenue in the Loop.
26-Dec-17 Transforming the dark corridor that is Wabash Avenue into a bright and colorful part of the Loop will not be cheap.
Filmmaker Jack Newell and design strategist Seth Unger are planning a new fundraising campaign with the goal of raising at least $750,000 and possibly closer to $1 million to extend their Wabash Lights public art project another city block.
The plan is to eventually install beneath the L tracks on Wabash Avenue 600 LED lights that could be controlled by users of a mobile phone app.
In January 2016, four 12-foot LED fixtures were installed on Wabash between Monroe and Adams Streets for 15 months of testing and were then removed. $59,480 was raised from 918 investors to pay for the installation and testing and an additional $25,000 came from the media company, Comcast.
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(Left) The first four Wabash Lights on January 26, 2016, seen from Monroe Street, looking north on Wabash Avenue. (Click on image to view larger version.) |
The latest round of fundraising would pay for equipment, labor, and maintenance, plus creation of the mobile app.
There was a time a few years ago when in Chicago a new mural would go up and it was exciting. I think people are getting fatigued by it, says Newell (right). Chicago used to be a leader in public art, now we are light years behind places like New York City they just created a $100 million stairway to nowhere [a 15-story 600-ton work called Vessel on New Yorks Far West Side with 2,500 climbable steps]. Why we are we letting NYC surpass us?
Photo by Joe Mazza
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For perspective, Newel points out that Millennium Parks Cloud Gate cost $23 million.