July 13, 2011
Photo courtesy of Bryce Bridges Photographic.
What do you do with a massive set of concrete silos no longer in use? If you’re Anne Trumble, you – through persistence and creativity – turn them into an art installation that serves as the launching point for an ongoing community discussion about land use, agriculture, food and transportation.
Trumble’s “Stored Potential: Repurposing the Mid-Century Grain Elevator” is the 2011 recipient of Omaha by Design’s Civic Leaf. Presented annually, the award recognizes an individual, organization or business that has worked to define and improve the metropolitan area’s civic places and public image. Trumble will be honored at the September meeting of the Omaha by Design Advisory Committee.
In the fall of 2010, 13 20’ by 80’ fabric murals were hung on the exterior of a concrete grain elevator along Interstate 80 near 34th and Vinton. Selected by a jury from hundreds of submissions, the final designs were chosen for creativity, visual impact and insightfulness interpreting land use, agriculture, and food as embodied by the empty silos.
Phase II of the installation will add 12 fabric murals to the site, this time out focusing on the topic of transportation. Those submitting designs have been asked to interpret the pivotal role transport plays in economic growth, urban development and sustainability. Installation is scheduled for fall 2011.
“There are opportunities to create positive civic identity everywhere one looks in Omaha,” Trumble said. “In the case of this particular grain elevator, it tells a tremendously civic story; it is a time capsule in the middle of a growing, expanding and progressing city. By repositioning something so familiar to almost everyone, this project intends to once again make the structure a relevant, and even inspirational, part of the ongoing narrative of our city’s landscape.”
Trumble is the founder of Emerging Terrain, an educational nonprofit research and design collaborative that operates on a project-by-project basis to investigate contemporary aspects of land use. The organization communicates with the public through exhibition, publication and educational programming in order to establish a broad reaching forum for discussion.
Past recipients of Omaha by Design’s Civic Leaf include Omaha South High School’s Collin Stadium Project, 2010; the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge and Omaha Plaza, 2009; Metropolitan Community College (MCC), Omaha Public Library and Metro for the development of MCC’s South Omaha Connector, 2008; and First National Bank for its pair of downtown sculpture parks, 2007.
For more information about Omaha by Design’s awards program, call 402.554.4010 or visit http://www.omahabydesign.org/about/awards/. For more information about Emerging Terrain, visit www.emergingterrain.org.