The idea behind the civic arts project Rhyme & Meter was to transform something universally hated – the parking meter – into a vehicle for delivering an unexpected moment of beauty.
We did this in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, by affixing excerpts of poems onto parking meters and having local artists paint the meters with an illustration or artistic interpretation of the poem. I worked with local artists, poets, architecture professor Mark Childs and his architecture studio of students, the Downtown Action Team, local businesses (they provided the sponsorships and the PR), and city officials.
I suppose you could say I am the world’s foremost (perhaps only) expert on putting poetry and art on parking meters. I know the type of paint that works best (sign paint), the type of plaque that is most durable and hardest to remove (thin metal), how to match artists with poets, how to ensure visual continuity by keeping the base coat color for a block of meters in the same color family, and how to get people to say “yes” to the idea.
This is the project that also taught me the importance of holding an idea “loosely.” My initial idea only included the poetry aspect, it was someone else’s suggestion to add the art, and that suggestion made all the difference! The trick when working with others and all collaboration is to allow the ideas and energy of others to shape not just how something is accomplished but what is accomplished – as long as it aligns with or enhances the vision. You can read about another lesson I learned from this project in the Power of a Pilot post on Quarter Mile Smile.
You can see images of artists at work and one of the completed meters below.
Tamara Nicholl-Smith 