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MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2016
Vol. CXXV, No. 1
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE CITY OF TACOMA Devoted to the Courts, Real Estate, Finance, Industrial Activities, and Publication of Legal Notices
Published Published Since Since 1890 1890
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Long before Tacoma's Lincoln District revamp, high school art students livened the neighborhood
Posted online Tues., Dec. 22 Article and File Photos By Todd Matthews, Editor Much attention has been paid to the City of Tacoma's Lincoln District Revitalization Project, a $4.25 million public works effort that will revamp the neighborhood by upgrading roads and sidewalks, and creating public art and neighborhood gateways along the district's primary arterial corridor, which covers a stretch of South 38th Street from Tacoma Avenue South to South Thompson Street. But some Tacoma residents might wonder what will happen to the hand-painted, kioskmounted signs ('Welcome to the Lincoln International Business District') that are sprinkled like ghost murals throughout the neighborhood. Along with the bright red decorative and ornamental street lamps, these weathered and faded wood fixtures (pictured) — created approximately 25 years ago by Lincoln High School students under the guidance of Kathy Martin, an artist who taught at Lincoln High School beginning in 1986 until she retired in 2002 — provide neighborhood character. According to City of Tacoma Arts Administrator Amy McBride, the signs and kiosks are not part of the city's municipal art collection. "The community hasn't decided what to do with those yet," added Debbie Bingham, the International Program Development Specialist in the City of Tacoma's Community and Economic Development Department. She noted the signs will need to be removed when contractors build new sidewalks. But she believes they will be reused somewhere else in the neighborhood. "They won't be trashed." The Tacoma Daily Index met Martin this week at Marlene's Market & Deli (incidentally, she recently finished painting a mural of the Murray Morgan Bridge on a large wall inside the store) to discuss the history of the old signs and kiosks.
wanted to do it, so we went over and talked about mural painting. Every class period, he would check in and then walk on over to the pharmacy and do the mural until he got done. That was sort of neat. For [the signs and kiosks] project, I was just approached by the principal. This was when the community was starting to name their areas, like the Stadium District and the Proctor District. We finally had a district, and [the City of Tacoma and local business owners] wanted to call it the Lincoln International District and they wanted some signage. I thought, "Well, I've got good, talented kids. We could work on something." This was a big project, so I went down to my friend Tom Hodder — he was the shop teacher at Lincoln [High School] — and he was always willing to help out. He said, "Sure, we'll build the kiosks for you and you put in the signage." The students and I — I can't remember who I talked to from the area and the City on this; that was the late-1980s, I think — did up
some drawings and they OK'd the plans and we went ahead with it. They had just installed these beautiful, fantastic lights. You know, the red ones. They were just up and it just caught my eye. I thought, "Boy, that is just beautiful." I talked to the kids and said, "Can we work this in?" It's called the Lincoln District, so of course we have to include Lincoln High School in there. I'm a professional calligrapher and taught calligraphy classes, so they worked on a lettering style, which was pretty unique. We got it all put together. I think we did four different kiosks. They wanted to do a front and a back, both sides. We had Plexiglass on these [signs because] that was of the era of tagging. They were afraid that people were going to tag them and destroy them. [Plexiglass] seemed to solve the problem pretty well. Except that after all these years the moisture came in. I think that's just particle board Masonite that we painted on. But we 'primered' it. It's acrylic paint. There is one boy who really was sort of the leader who spearheaded [things]. He did an awful lot. He had his own team and they did it in my painting class as a project. It was great. It took them a long time, but they painted them. We asked the City and the district for the cost of materials only. I wish I would have asked them for a little bit more money so that we could have done something for those kids or for the art department. Tom Hodder got the cost of materials for building the kiosks. I don't know who installed them, but I imagine the City did. I bet they need to be restored. If they could save one or two of them, I would restore them just to have at least one of them there as sort of the first signage in their district.
TACOMA DAILY INDEX: How did this idea for creating signs and kiosks for the neighborhood come to be?
INDEX: That's what has intrigued me about those signs. There is a renewed interest in revitalizing the neighborhood and the City has just selected an artist to create public art. To my mind, those kiosks and signs seem to be one of the earliest sorts of public art in the Lincoln District. Am I wrong?
KATHY MARTIN: We did quite a few jobs for the Lincoln community. One of the first ones I remember was the little pharmacy on the corner. They asked us to paint a pestle and mortar on their wall. One of my students
MARTIN: I'm trying to think if there were any other murals there. That's sort of interesting. I guess you can CONTINUED go into the debate of ON PAGE 2 what is art and what is