Then & Now: Pop-up Art
May 2003: “TULIPS” sprung up around Akron in 2003. Akron artist J. Scott Matthews launched the “Temporary Unauthorized Large Installation Project” that year, turning abandoned Akron locations into art. Akron Life’s 2003 article by Kim Carpenter features photos of Matthews’ work, including red paint in increasing amounts on poles forming an illusion at an abandoned supermarket at Exchange and Market streets. As he was painting the poles, police questioned him on what he was doing at the property, and when he explained he was making art, they let him off the hook. He poked fun at the encounter by calling his exhibit of photographs of the art “2909.06A1,” which is the police code for willful destruction of property.
Summer 2022: Quaker Square, the former Quaker Oats factory, has been iconic in Akron for decades. It has been a hotel, shopping and dining complex and University of Akron residence hall. Now, Curated Storefront is activating the space as pop-up art galleries as part of the Front International public art festival featuring exhibits around Northeast Ohio, including Akron from July 16 to Oct. 2. Look for art in the first-floor galleries as well as in suites on the second floor that were formerly a comic bookstore and train display rooms. The New York Times called Front “an artistic scavenger hunt with civic pride.” The theme this summer is inspired by a line from a Langston Hughes poem, “Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows,” and focuses on how art can be an agent of transformation, healing and joy.