Loyola professor Alan Gerson and Caitlin Clifford, art junior, have taken part in the city’s latest “Artification” project, which proved to be beneficial in preserving the city.

The pair submitted work to have displayed along the Canal Street streetcar line as part of a project led by the Downtown Development District.

According to its Web site, the Downtown Development District is a federal, state and city funded group that also relies on sponsorship and fundraising. The group was formed in 1974 as the nation’s first “assessment-based business improvement district” in the United States.

The area being developed covers all of downtown from Iberville to the Pontchartrain Expressway, and from Claiborne to the river. The group is focused on creating and sustaining economic development in bioscience, the arts, digital media and tourism.

The group has its own cleaning crew called Block-by-Block, and is in charge of developing the residential and tourist areas of downtown.

The Downtown Development District’s newest project will develop downtown into an arts district that displays public art and employs local artists. Its kick-off project, “Artification” was started on Nov. 1 to run in conjunction with Prospect 1.

The project turned 14 bus and streetcar shelters into contemporary art pieces. One hundred and twenty seven paintings were judged, and a blind jury picked the final 14 works that will remain in place for three years.

The final pieces were scanned and processed onto transparent laminate, which was placed on the glass panels of the shelters, creating a stained-glass-effect.

In a partnership with Regional Transit Authority, the project completely repaired the transit shelters, and the Block-by-Block team is slated to care for the 14 shelters.

Gerson’s “Dinosaurs, Aliens, and UFOs,” and Clifford’s “French Lace” are among pieces chosen.
 Gerson’s work is from a recent show whose theme was “Dinosaurs, Aliens, and UFOs” and explores a world of fantasy, as well as an unimaginable coexistence of dinosaurs and aliens, and how they would comprehend each other.

“French Lace” is an abstract endeavor by Clifford experimenting with watercolors. Her work is colorful and playful, and it is meant to engage pedestrians who walk through the colors on the street, becoming part of the reflected art.

This project is essential to forming a proactive downtown area. Clifford chose to study at Loyola because “New Orleans is such a great place for artists to study, live, and work in because of projects like this which make art a citywide charm.”

As an artist, Gerson finds the project important because “not only does it provides work for local artists, but it also places art on the street for the unassuming public.”

Alan Gerson is currently displaying more of his work at the Universal Furniture building on St. Claude Avenue.

Garrett Cleland can be reached at [email protected].