Art instead of ads

The New York Times Style Magazine reports:

In San Francisco, where tensions between established artist communities and Silicon Valley continue to rise, Luke Groesbeck, a former tech worker and the founder of the fledgling public art organization Art City, wants to help his hometown reinvest in the former. “This is a city with a major arts and cultural legacy,” he says. “How do we honor that? Then an idea came up and I got fixated on it: What happens when you turn an entire city into a gallery? Is it possible?”

From now until Aug. 17, San Franciscans will get to find out. As part of Art City’s Way Out West project, Groesbeck, along with his crew of curators and organizers, worked with advertising companies and the local creative community to coordinate his organization’s pilot urban art takeover.

This seems cool, displacing advertising in favor of local art and all. But I also really like that Coors Light ad.

Read on.

6 Responses to “Art instead of ads”

  1. one says:

    Damn, about fucking time.

  2. Spencer Christian says:

    Jen Stark!!
    Shes the best!

  3. kov says:

    Super ugly art. gah. I’d rather see an billboard for some mexican soap opera than this shit.

  4. kov says:

    dripping rainbows… so original!! horrid art.

  5. d_son says:

    Do people really look at billboards anyways? Only if you live across the street from the front or back of one. The rest of the world sees them only as part of the blur, unless they’re iconic (Angelique) sensationalist (God Hates…) or lighted in a particularizing way (Yahoo). We only pay attention to billboards when they’re disrupted (or disruptive). These, showcased in the article, aren’t putting art out there for everyone in a performance of benign generosity, rather they’re softening the sight lines for a brief time. They’re closer to clouds than works of art, but clouds that pay rent to be there.