Warehouse Arts District Sign Project

Date: 2013 - present

Location: Multiple Properties, Warehouse Arts District, Tucson AZ

Collaborators: Rand Carlson, Alec Laughlin, Sally Krommes, Roberto Bedoya, Corky Poster, Susan Gamble, Rex Gulbranson, Emily Duwell, Randy Harris, Gloo Factory

The Warehouse Arts District is comprised of visual artists, music venues, skateboard shops, landscape designers, art galleries, car repair shops, a desert plant nursery, beer brewing facilities, coffee roasting facilities, fashion designers, military outfitters, bars, puppeteers, bicycle shops, printers, and vacant land to name a few. And that is just today (2013).

While it is one of the oldest places in Tucson, it is an area that undergoes frequent change. Many small businesses create start-ups in this area and move on, the City of Tucson continually revises (or plans to revise) the built environment in the area, and landowners shift with the economic patterns. It is continually vibrant and in flux.

Just where is the Warehouse Arts District? How do you know when you have arrived to the Warehouse District? When you are there do you know what exists behind the walls of the buildings? Who is occupying the district?

The purpose of the project is to create public awareness of the Warehouse Arts District. Artists Rand Carlson and Bill Mackey were hired through the Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC) to assist in the creation of an "awareness campaign" for the area. TPAC received its funding through a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Our Town grant. The NEA received its funding through the Executive and Legislative branches of the federal government. The Executive and Legislative branches receive their funding through you. Thank you.

Rand and Bill combed the area. They took pictures, made maps, interviewed inhabitants, spoke to experts, and met frequently with TPAC. They scratched their heads because it was difficult for them to draw a specific line around the area. Being visual artists, they wanted to mark the territory, to create some sort of threshold that distinctly says you are either in the district or not. But, as they found out, the district is not like that. Not only are the people and landowners (and even streets!) constantly in flux, but so are the boundaries. So they decided on the signs. Any building within the general area commonly known as the Warehouse Historic District can be in the program.

TPAC contacted each owner within the area and if the owner was interested in participating, a triangular green sign was made and installed (permit free!) in a prescribed location at their property. The sign not only marks the territory, but it also includes a digital presence. The public can access a website describing the occupants of the building via scanning a QR code on the sign.

This project was a community event. Participants include the owners of the contributing properties, City of Tucson Assistant City Manager, City of Tucson Development Services Department Director, City of Tucson Historic Preservation Office, the Tucson Pima Historic Commission Plans Review Subcommittee, the Warehouse Arts Management Organization, Corky Poster, Susan Gamble, and the many occupants (who may or may not be there now) of the Warehouse Arts District. Special recognition should go to Alec Laughlin for making the seamless and easy to use website and Randy Harris for the sign font.

Rex Gulbranson, Sally Krommes, Emily Duwell, and Roberto Bedoya of TPAC provided unfettered leadership on this project.