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New Downtown Renton Art Installations Add Beauty, History
February 2, 2016
For more information contact:
John W. Collum, Community Development Project Manager, 425-430-6589
Preeti Shridhar, Deputy Public Affairs Administrator 425-430-6569
RENTON: The City of Renton’s Community and Economic Development department, Renton History
Museum, and Renton Municipal Arts Commission (RMAC) have collaborated on three new art and
heritage displays recently installed in downtown.
The most recent addition is a traffic signal cabinet at South 3rd
Street and Williams Avenue South that has been wrapped with
historic photos of buildings located at that intersection. The
historic photos, from the 1910s, 1940s and 1960s, are from the
Renton History Museum collection, and are strategically placed
to contrast the current site in the background. This project is
the second traffic signal cabinet that the city has wrapped with
a special graffiti-resistant film that adds beautification as well as
protection.
Just south of this installation, the Renton History Museum has
placed a window display in the vacant storefront at 306
Williams Avenue South containing a narrative and pictorial
review of “Renton’s Changing Identity.” The display compares
and contrasts the physical differences between downtown
Renton and The Landing. It also includes residents’ perceptions
of each area and the role each play in the city’s larger
landscape as a business district. The museum’s youth advisory
council, the RenTeens, designed and developed the display.
One block east of that location, the RMAC has installed an art garden within a vacant landscape strip
near 309 Wells Avenue South. The project was designed by Marsha Rollinger and consists of planters
decorated with playful faces, plants, and white rock intermingled with colorful broken tiles. The rock and
tiles form a “river of light” that is illuminated at night via a solar power source. The art garden was
assembled by members of the RMAC and other volunteers in December 2015.
These installations are clustered to collectively highlight the downtown area as a center of arts and
history within the community. The city’s Community and Economic Development Department is working
with the downtown community and the RMAC to explore opportunities for additional art installations. For
more information or to become involved in future projects, please contact arts@rentonwa.gov or
425.430.6589.