Transforming billboards into roadside art exhibits

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane! It’s art from six highly creative Greater Lansing artists! 

Back for its 13th year is the annual Art in the Sky billboard contest, an annual submission-based public art project put together by the Arts Council of Greater Lansing and Adams Outdoor Advertising that takes the artwork of local artists and blows it up on full-size billboards for the entire city to enjoy. 

“The project was designed to create an opportunity for the arts to be accessible to everyone for free, and to highlight our community members and make their art available,” said Dawn Gorman, the council’s communications specialist. 

Art in the Sky, which debuted in 2011, was proposed in the council’s 2009 “cultural economic development plan.” 

The plan detailed several strategies to collaborate with local entities like Adams and help foster creativity in public spheres by implementing work from regional artists into placemaking initiatives. Another key part of the plan was to attract and retain talent in Lansing by highlighting output from the local arts and culture scene. Adams has been noteworthy for engaging in other experimental advertising campaigns, such as its other current run of billboards that solely feature close-up photographs of wide-eyed staring faces.   

As is the standard mantra of most public art projects, the goal for Art in the Sky specifically was to help beautify local spaces and raise awareness about talented artists residing in the Greater Lansing region. It also had the benefit of transforming vacant billboards, commonly considered to be eyesores, into temporary art pieces. Artists whose work is chosen are required to pay a $100 fee. If the artist cannot afford the fee, Gorman said the Arts Council is flexible with other options.   

Members of the Arts Council do not actually make the final choice of which six artists go up on the billboards. Instead that responsibility is deferred to a selection panel that is organized by the council. The panel consists of a cadre of local arts and cultural figures, and the primary question asked in the decision-making process is how well each piece would take to being displayed on a billboard. 

“The main thing is whether the art is readable when you’re driving in your car at 40 miles per hour. They’re looking at whether it translates well and the overall creativity in the design,” Gorman said. “We want to make sure that it’s clear when people drive by that they’re seeing art from a local artist.”

The Art in the Sky project remains visible throughout the entire year, with each selected artist in the cycle getting a two-month share. 

In 2020, Adams and the Arts Council began using billboards with digital screens, which allow for an unlimited cycle of images. In previous years, Adams was responsible for taking the pieces that were selected for Art in the Sky and printing each one onto a massive 672-square-foot vinyl sheet that would then go up on billboards across the city. 

“The great thing about going digital is that the artists don’t just have their work on just one billboard on Cedar Street. Now, their artwork is all over the place at the same time. Their art might be running on Michigan Avenue, at Frandor or over near the airport — wherever Adams has space,” Gorman said. 

Each year a wide variety of art styles are represented in the Art in the Sky billboard contest. The different art forms that have wound up on one of the billboards include photography, sculpting, woodblock printing, watercolor painting — just about anything is on the table.  

“I still get excited when I’m riding around in my car with my daughter, I’ll say, ‘Look there’s one of our billboards!’ It’s really great to see the art work larger-than-life like that and it’s a great experience for the artists too, they get very excited,” Gorman said.  

With more than a decade of history behind it, Art in the Sky is one of the older public art initiatives that has become a yearly local tradition. It’s an early example of the ongoing trend of accessible artistic exhibitions that are growing in popularity in Lansing, such as the Below the Stacks Mural Festival or the outdoor Art Path gallery located alongside the Lansing River Trail.

“There’s been such a huge burst of public in Greater Lansing in recent years. We’re seeing so many murals going up, sculptures being created regularly. The impact for Greater Lansing is overall is that city is more vibrant and creative. It makes our city livelier and more beautiful, and shows that we are open to creativity,” Gorman said. “It’s about creating the opportunity to see art in unexpected places.”

To check out the  Art in the Sky billboards, visit:  lansingarts.org/programs/billboard-project

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