Mass Ave. 'digital canvas' proposal: Innovative public art or Times Square tacky?

It has the shape of a billboard but the contents of an art gallery. It’s paid for by corporate sponsors but operates like a nonprofit. The object, roughly the screen size of the Pacers digital scoreboard in Bankers Life Fieldhouse but vertical, would face the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, New Jersey Street and Michigan Street and brandish images and videos day and night.

The technology is so new, and the model for its content so unprecedented, people have struggled to know what to call it. Art? A billboard? Or something altogether different?

“Nothing like this exists currently,” said Desma Belsaas, a principal for Schmidt Associates, the architectural firm working on the project with Indianapolis area developers J.C. Hart and Strongbox Commercial.

Those behind Montage on Mass — the proposed high-end apartment complex with first-floor shops slated to begin construction in 2016 — say their $1 million “digital mesh canvas,” which consists of a porous blanket of metal tubes containing LED lights, could become much more than an electronic billboard. Using an innovative model that combines art, commerce and technology, the display could represent the city’s largest single platform for public art, the developers say. It would show mostly art but also advertising, with some of the revenue funding art.

It’s the visual cornerstone of the $50 million, five-story development that will replace the Indianapolis Fire Department station and the Firefighters Credit Union. The developers say the project will make the corridor more cohesive. Now, they say, Massachusetts Avenue seems to be split in two by the retail gap on the block inhabited by the IFD headquarters.

Installing a large-scale display will drive interest to their building, but the board’s raison dêtre will be to promote art, not advertising, the developers say.

The idea has excited business owners and arts leaders, who say the display could make a bold statement about both Massachusetts Avenue and the Indianapolis arts scene. They say it could push the definition of public art past sculptures and murals and into the iPhone era — and create a new way to fund high-profile arts projects using commercial revenue sources.

Montage on Mass is investing in a smartphone app to go along with the display as a way to boost interest in the featured artists.

“It is quite bold,” said Eric Strickland, executive director of Riley Area Development Corp., one of the early community supporters behind developing the block for better street engagement through use of retail.

Other members of the community are more skeptical. A billboard wrapped in the guise of art, some critics say, is still a billboard. And the lights, though half as dim as traditional electronic billboards, would stick out like a sore thumb as they twinkle between the historic Athenaeum and Old National Centre buildings, imposing a “Times Square” aesthetic onto the nearby architecture so vital to the character and appeal of Massachusetts Avenue.

Off-premise sponsorships — aka billboards — are not allowed in this historic neighborhood, so the developers will be applying for an exception to the area’s zoning regulations. They will present the project to the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission on Wednesday.

Under the developers’ proposal, any revenue beyond expenses generated from sponsors would go toward the arts community, not the developers, said J.C. Hart President John Hart. If the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission approves of the proposal, J.C. Hart and Strongbox Commercial would be legally bound to maintain the display’s nonprofit-esque model.

“I know it’s unbelievable that a developer would do this,” he said. “People assume developers are only in it to make money. I think people have to trust the fact that we have the best of intentions here.”

The proposal is to use at least 80 percent of the 25-foot-wide, 40-foot-tall display for media created by emerging artists from Central Indiana. The remaining 20 percent would be used for logos from sponsors to generate revenue. The split could be spacial or temporal. Either the top 80 percent of the display will be reserved for art, with sponsors on the bottom, or the whole display will be used for art, with the display flashing into sponsorship mode 20 percent of the time.

The developers are proposing a partnership with the Arts Council of Indianapolis. The organization would receive about $120,000 of sponsorship money a year to act as the curating body for the Montage on Mass display. The partnership has not been finalized.

After maintenance, security — to prevent hacks — and a capital fund to eventually rebuild the display are covered, leftover funds would be managed by an advisory committee consisting of the developers and leaders from the Downtown and business community. The group would determine how to use the surplus to invest in the arts community, Hart said.

The design is smaller, dimmer and more expensive than an original 2013 proposal for a more traditional horizontal billboard, which was met with criticism.

“It has evolved very nicely,” said David Andrichik, the longtime owner of the Chatterbox Jazz Club. “It’ll be both a statement of the 21st century and be compatible with the historic nature of the Mass Ave. neighborhood.”

Art appearing in commercial spaces has worked, Arts Council of Indianapolis President Dave Lawrence said. He pointed to the High Art Billboard Project, the council’s partnership with Clear Channel Outdoor to rotate art on actual billboards about the city.

The Massachusetts Avenue project would be “an opportunity for artists to be visible in a new space, and it can result in additional sales and commission for the artist,” he said.

“We have no position on the infrastructure itself,” Lawrence added.

But some neighbors and historians say the presence of art wouldn’t do enough to soften the effect of what they see as a garish proposal.

“It’s a Jumbotron on the building corner. I don’t see how that brings anything positive to the neighborhood,” said Connie Zeigler, president of the history and preservation firm C. Resources. She said a more traditional art space, such as a wall for murals, would better serve the neighborhood.

Marjorie Kienle, president of Historic Urban Neighborhoods of Indianapolis, said a billboard isn’t appropriate for the location. “It’s how big it is. It’s how bright it is. It’s the animation,” she said. “It will have off-premise sponsorship. That’s the legal definition of a billboard. Does it set a precedent for billboards in the area?”

“It seems too ‘Times Square,’” said Joan Hostetler, owner of Heritage Photo and Research Services and a writer for Historic Indianapolis.

But even Times Square has had its artistic moments. At 11:57 one night in 2012, one of the world’s most recognized symbols of commercialism challenged the notion that billboards can display only advertising. Times Square turned into a digital art gallery for three minutes, stunning the throngs of passersby with the high-definition exploding flowers of photographer Ori Gersht.

“It’s great to stand with 15,000 other people looking up at the screen who all drop whatever it is they’re doing,” said Sherry Dobbin, director of public art of Times Square Arts and its Midnight Moment project.

Although the Massachusetts Avenue display represents a vastly smaller scale, its creators think it could make that same visceral impact.

Paul Kite, CEO of Strongbox Commercial, thinks Indianapolis is ready for that kind of multimedia innovation. “While it’s a cool building,” he said, “the screen will be what everybody remembers.”

Call Star reporter Wei-Huan Chen at (317) 444-6249. Follow him on Twitter: @weihuanchen.

Billboard art

Sherry Dobbin, director of public art of Times Square Arts, offers insight on digital art on billboards:

• “Whatever content is on the screen, think about how that fits with the actual physical environment of the place. The art could have a relationship to the architecture.”

• “Use a combination of emerging and established artists. The younger set wants to be involved with something established artists have engaged in.”

• “Change up the styles: Live action, animation, collage, etc.”

• “Work with museums and festivals. Show off incredible institutions. Treat the space not as an isolated or competing venue but an extension or exhibit space for another venue.”