Vacant buildings get new life with art exhibit

The idea for the Art in Storefronts project came after Abby Nelson, Main Street manager for the city of Morganton, read an article about the importance of storefront window displays in captivating pedestrian experiences in downtown areas, she said.

“While the article specifically was referring to buildings that already had stores in them … it spurred the idea for me on how this could be transformational for vacant buildings in downtown Morganton,” Nelson said.

She worked alongside property owners and city departments to produce a call to artists for art that would go into the front windows.

The call went out to local artists and was posted on a national website, Nelson said, with about a dozen responses from people across the state and country.

The Main Street office narrowed the proposals down to seven different artists to create installations in three storefronts on West Union Street.

Terry Konrath, of California, will have an installation in 200 W. Union St. that will see a lot of floral elements in play.

Amy Owens, a Forest City photographer, will bring her goal of historical preservation through photography to a storefront in the same building with an exhibit that puts a focus on the doorknobs of buildings that may not be able to be physically saved.

Some abstract sculptures will be in play with Rebecca Berger’s exhibit in the same building. Nelson said she draws a lot of inspiration from Victorian-era art and jewelry.

Jim Weitzel, of Forest City, will have some sculptures up from his series called “The Guardians,” which is figurative and highly abstract sculptures that include faces on each piece, Nelson said. Weitzel’s life-size sculptures will be up in a storefront at 204 W. Union St.

Another window in that building will get transformed into an “over-the-top, larger than life gumball machine,” Nelson said. She said he’s using balloons to look like giant gumballs.

Fanni Somogyi will have a project called “Daydreaming for Another World” with sci-fi-inspired pieces that aim to create an ethereal, other-worldly environment to finish off the art installations in 204 W. Union St.

Sterling Lieske, a Morganton native, will be taking over the windows in the old Belk building at 214 W. Union St, a place with a personal meaning for Lieske.

“Her grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-aunt all worked in the Belk building,” Nelson said. “She has direct ties to the space and I know that she’s very excited and honored to be doing an art installation in that building.”

Lieske will be painting on location in the building over the course of a couple weeks. Her art for this installation will be primarily abstract, large canvas paintings.

Her painting schedule will be posted once it becomes available.

“That’s really what this project is all about, transforming this series of vacant buildings into more approachable spaces for our visitors and pedestrians,” Nelson said.

Those installations started going in Aug. 9 and installations will continue through Aug. 29, Nelson said, and will be on display for several months. A reception and viewing of the installations will be held Sept. 16 during the Third Thursday Art Crawl.

“The art scene in Morganton is just amazing,” Nelson said. “We’ve got so many local artists, talented people, and this is a new project for Main Street. I’m looking forward to seeing how it progresses and the feedback from the public.”