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Rain Art Returns

RACVB

A popular art project is hitting the sidewalks of Rockford once again.  Rain Art uses environmentally-friendly paint that’s only visible when wet. The interactive public art installation is part of the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau's Forest City Beautiful initiative.  Josh Albrecht is the Bureau’s Director of Marketing & Public Affairs. He said Rockford hosted a similar project last year downtown.

“And it was really well-received, he said.  "We had a great mix of people coming to the downtown core in Rockford looking for the art, trying to discover it.”

Albrecht said people had so much fun with Rain Art last year that the bureau and its community partners --the River District Association, Midtown District, Miracle Mile, and SwedishAmerican -- decided to bring it back.

“While it adds a little bit of whimsy on a rainy day," he said, "it also is a great way for people to explore their community on a sunny day, where they, you know, they might have to bring a water bottle out with them, and see if they can find the art on their own.” 

RACVB is working with Rockford-based OC Creative for the project installation and execution. OC Creative launched a similar initiative called Project Liquid Sunshine in spring 2016.

The art is expected to last for 2 to 4 months. Albrecht says there are twice as many locations this time – 22 -- scattered across the downtown River District, Midtown, near Swedish American Hospital, and "the Miracle Mile" -- East State Street.  A downloadable map showing where to find the art is available on the Bureau’s website. 

Guy Stephens produces news stories for the station, and coordinates our online events calendar, PSAs and Arts Calendar announcements. In each of these ways, Guy helps keep our listening community informed about what's going on, whether on a national or local level. Guy's degrees are in music, and he spent a number of years as a classical host on WNIU. In fact, after nearly 20 years with Northern Public Radio, the best description of his job may be "other duties as required."