If you have been to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront recently, you may have noticed these on the beach.
In case you don’t know what they are, they are the storage boxes for the beach chairs and umbrellas. Well thanks to a visionary/project developer by the name of Bobby Levin, this happened… pop-up art!
During the summertime the beach is transformed into an art gallery with a dual purpose; the stands provide lookouts for the lifeguards and the colorfully painted boxes serve as landmarks for the thousands of visitors that come each year. At the end of the tourist season, instead of putting these “functional” pieces of artwork in a storage facility somewhere, they are relocated to a parcel of land near the Virginia Beach Convention Center. This area then becomes a pop-up art park where the public can continue to enjoy the pieces until mid-May. Each piece is painted by an artist through sponsorship. The business sponsors receive their name on a placard for one year, the artist receives a $1000 commission and the storage boxes and lifeguard stands receive a makeover. What a way to re-imagine don’t you think? Which one is your favorite?