American Sign Museum Announces National Roll-Out of CoSign Project

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 23, 2016
Media contact: Cate Becker
cbecker@americansignmuseum.org

American Sign Museum Announces National Roll-out of CoSign Project

Cincinnati, OH -- CoSign, a creative place-making project developed by the American Sign Museum in collaboration with the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation, is expected to be replicated in six communities across the United States in 2017.

CoSign brings together local business owners with artists and professional sign fabricators to create unique signage in designated business districts.  The six cities which have qualified, and their respective organizations which are facilitating the process in these communities, include:  

• Alachua, FL – Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Historic District
• Charlotte, NC - ArtPop Street Gallery, Plaza Midwood Business District
• Evanston, IL - Downtown Evanston, Commercial Business District
• West Des Moines, IA - Historic Valley Junction Foundation, Valley Junction Business District 
• Iowa City, IA – Iowa City Downtown District, Metropolitan Improvement District
• Chicago, IL - Uptown United, Argyle Street Business District

Each community will begin preliminary planning immediately, leading up to a two-day workshop at the Cincinnati-based American Sign Museum, February 19th – 21st. The six to seven month CoSign process will begin in earnest next March for the communities who complete the workshop. The project will culminate in the unveiling of 10-12 signs in each community during an existing public event in the fall.

Tod Swormstedt, Executive Director of the American Sign museum says, “CoSign designs, fabricates and installs a critical mass of new storefront signage for a given business district.  It demonstrates the true value of cross pollination between the arts, small business and the sign industry.” He continues, “We are thrilled to work with each of the six communities and expand this project nationally.”

The project was originally a collaboration of the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation and the American Sign Museum, both of Cincinnati, and was piloted in Cincinnati’s Northside business district in 2012.  CoSign was awarded an ArtPlace grant in 2013 which enabled the project to be encored in Northside in 2013 and then across the river to Covington, KY in 2014.  The Covington project was additionally supported by an Our Town grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.  

The ArtPlace grant involved the creation of a “toolkit,” so that CoSign could be replicated in other US communities.  The critical ingredients for a successful implementation are three-fold:

• A critical mass of willing small businesses with a defined geographic area.
• A committed, organized group of residents willing to be supportive of their neighborhood business district.
• A community character that embraces creative placemaking.

CoSign recently named Cate Becker of BLDG Refuge as the Project Director for the national implementation of CoSign. Becker was the former Cultural Arts Director for the City of Covington and oversaw the third iteration of CoSign in Covington, KY. In her role, she connected artists and designers to the project, liaised with government officials and organized the 10th anniversary of Art Off Pike, the urban arts festival where the project signs were unveiled.
 

National and Local Grants Assure the Next Round of CoSign

On May 20th, ArtPlace America announced awarding a $200,000 grant to the American Sign Museum for our CoSign project.  CoSign was among 54 projects chosen from more than 1,200 applications as an ‘exceptional example of creative placemaking.’

CoSign is the brainchild of our own Tod Swormstedt, museum founder, and Eric Avner, Senior Program Manager for Community Development of the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. / U.S. Bank Foundation, known more simply as the Haile Foundation.  Last year, with funding from the Haile Foundation, they piloted their vision of bringing together artists, fabricators, and small businesses from the Northside community of Cincinnati.  Their goal was to educate participants on the value and components of good signage and to actually create new signage for several businesses within the community.  The project was a great success, with eleven new signs unveiled on Black Friday.  Read about the CoSign pilot project here.

In the months following last year’s project, Avner has presented the CoSign project to audiences across the country.  Part of this next round will include developing a toolkit for others to use in implementing similar projects in their own communities.

The ArtPlace funding, along with an additional $150,000 from the Haile foundation will give us the opportunity to expand on last year’s CoSign pilot project.  We have already begun bringing together the CoSign team and plan to follow a schedule similar to last year’s pilot for the next round of signs in Northside.  The goal will again be to unveil the new signs on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.  Plans are also in the works for working with another neighborhood – most likely Covington, KY, just across the river.

“This is really exciting news”, said Avner, “it gives our work a national profile, and it will enable the Sign Museum to roll out CoSign two more times (at least) and to create a toolkit to help other communities (locally or nationally) to replicate it.”

Be sure to watch for updates on our website in the months to come.

2013: The year ahead

It’s on to an even more exciting new year!

• Work has begun on the nearly 20,000 square feet of un-renovated space of our new home, known affectionately as ‘the other side.’ This space will allow for future museum expansion. Expanding the museum itself into this additional space will require a substantial fundraising campaign, but we’re on our way!
• We have also started installing a “boneyard” of sorts along Monmouth Street, that will showcase many of our signs-in-waiting. These signs will welcome visitors and lead them to the museum’s entrance!
• Our annual online auction is gearing up, with its big finish April 6th, at the International Sign Association Expo in Las Vegas.
• We’re looking forward to CoSign II, our working title for the next chapter of CoSign, bringing together local stakeholders to learn about and create effective signage for neighborhood business communities.
• And of course we are continuing to grow the museum’s offerings for all to see – including an expanded gift shop where you’ll be sure to find the perfect item to read, wear, or otherwise display. 

We are so grateful for our financial, in-kind, and moral supporters. We have you to thank for the museum’s success through the years. We hope we will continue to earn your support in the years to come.