By Scott Pohl, WKAR
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-980574.mp3
LANSING, MI –
Billboards are a common sight in Michigan. Usually, they're there to sell you something, but sometimes, they bear a public service message. Those are often placed on billboards that aren't currently sold to a paying customer.
In Ingham County, a third type of billboard may have caught your eye. They display the works of local artists while generating a bit of revenue at the same time.
WKAR's Scott Pohl reports on the "Art in the Sky" project.
Billboards are supposed to attract your attention, but seeing the work of fused glass artist Craig Mitchell Smith up there really pops out at you. If you drove northbound on Cedar Street near I-496 in recent weeks, you couldn't help but notice the sign displaying one of his pieces against a stark, black background.
Billboard advertising is out of the promotional price range of most artists. The Art in the Sky program has changed that, and five local artists have used it to promote their work at a discounted price. Smith, who runs a studio and gallery in the Meridian Mall, calls it "a gift of serendipity."
"I was surprised how many people came to me after saying I had seen the billboard, I was driving.' I had several out-of-town people who had never heard of me," Smith says. "My name would come up and they'd say oh, he's in the mall', and then I got them."
Allison Holtz is the local sales manager for Adams Outdoor Advertising. She says the program began with the company's operation in northeastern Pennsylvania.
"It's basically 672 square feet of art that we're able to put up on, obviously, massive billboards," Holtz explains, "and it's just a beautiful way to showcase what they're putting together."
When approached with the idea, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing readily agreed to offer the opportunity to local grantee artists. The council subsidizes the cost of the vinyls, but the artists are required to share some of the expense.
The Arts Council is using money from the Ingham County Hotel-Motel assessment to fund the program. They get 5% of that money to promote tourism in the county. Because of that, the first round of billboards in March had to be placed outside Ingham County. Executive Director Leslie Donaldson.
"What we wanted to do as an agency is offer that opportunity to our individual artists," Donaldson says, "and promote their work outside of the county, and encourage visitors to come into the county and find out a little bit more about the talent that we have here."
Because the billboards are sold at a discount, Adams retains the right to replace them with signs for customers paying full price. When that happens, the artist's sign is moved to another available spot. Several months into the program, the billboards are now showing up in Lansing. Moving billboards around is a strategy often employed in the business.
"I would prefer not to stay in one location the entire time, because now you're able to reach different traffic patterns," Holtz says. "So, the five that we've had up in the market have been all over this community, so as people are driving around, they have the opportunity to see the beauty of what this creative is up in the market, in multiple places."
Artist Craig Mitchell Smith agrees that moving his billboard around has been beneficial. "Every time the billboard would move, I would get a whole new crop of people who had never driven by that way to see the billboard before, who would see it and then would come in and see me," Smith says. "And every time the billboard moves, not only will I get an uptick in traffic and sales at my gallery, but I'll hear from old friends."
Allison Holtz says Adams Outdoor Advertising says the company is so happy with the results that they have Art in the Sky billboards up in the Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo markets, too, and she's hoping to expand the Ingham County program.