Lake Effect News

By JACK BESS

Contributing Editor

"Artists In Motion" is an innovative program launched by the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce that showcases original works by neighborhood artists while at the same time promoting storefronts for leasing to prospective new businesses. (PHOTO/JACK BESS)

With the recession putting a damper on business openings, Edgewater community groups have turned vacant storefronts into opportunities to showcase local artists.

Currently, 22 store windows that would otherwise be blankly facing passersby are now alive with colorful paintings, drawings and photographs and trimmed with strings of holiday  lights.  That’s the result of Edgewater Artists in Motion (AIM), an initiative that started last summer and is supported by the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce, Edgewater Community Council, and Edgewater Development Corporation .

Edgewater civic leaders say the project has multiple benefits, such as raising the profile of local artists and attracting more shoppers to business strips, where store vacancies began to rise.

“I was in the Edgewater Community Council office and within two weeks there were four pieces of property where the leases were not renewed,” said Rae Ann Cecrle, chairman of AIM and board member of the chamber and the development corporation.

Cecrle, who is credited as the prime mover and shaker of Artists in Motion, said that once the property owner has agreed to let artists show their work in the window, the community groups can hit the ground running and get the storefronts cleaned and lit and the artwork mounted fairly quickly, which means their commercial strips see an almost immediate improvement. That was the case last December when the CTA, after months of negotiation and the purchase of liability insurance by the local groups, finally allowed AIM access to vacant storefronts at the Berwyn, Bryn Mawr, Thorndale and Granville stations.

5350 Broadway on Balmoral side (PHOTO/JACK BESS)

“What’s special to me is that we can do it and do it now,” Cecrle said. “In December, the CTA gave us seven storefronts and within 10 days we had those stores lookin’ good.”

The project appeals to local artists because it gives them an opportunity to exhibit their work, said John Garrison, an Edgewater resident whose paintings can be seen at 5501 N. Broadway, 1150 W. Catalpa, and 1206 W. Rosedale. That appeal is so strong that AIM now has more artists who want to participate than available storefronts, Cecrle said.

“It started off quite modest but in short order, artists were knocking on the door asking how they could get into it,” Garrison said. “I hope this brands the neighborhood because there is so much talent here. By providing all this, someone might look at a storefront and say: That’s a good place to open a gallery.”

If the property owner signs a tenant, AIM will remove the exhibit to another storefront, hence the word “Motion” in the group’s name. If it comes to the point where every storefront is rented, AIM could even “transition inside” the businesses, the way coffeehouses display artwork on their walls, said Tina Travlos Nihlean, EDC president.  For the present, the art-adorned storefronts serve to attract shoppers to existing stores as well as attract prospective business owners, she said.

“We find that is people are looking to open a business and they see a district that looks better, they are more likely to take a risk and open a business there,” Nihlean said.

5350 N. Broadway (PHOTO/JACK BESS)

Larry Eaton, EDC vice president, added that, “For years, a goal of ours has been to make the streets more pedestrian-friendly. I think this project makes the whole community an outdoor walking gallery.”

The project may also help develop a new identity for Edgewater as an arts destination, much the way Wicker Park is branded, said Jay Delaney, chamber of commerce president and CEO whose photographs are on display at 1117 W. Granville.

“I’ve been living here since September 2008 and it’s been really clear to me that there’s a really strong artistic community in the neighborhood,” Delaney said. “That’s what’s exciting to me. There’s a lot of creativity here and I don’t think people outside the neighborhood always realize that.”

For more information about “Artists In Motion” windows, click here.