Building on his Love Letter project in Philadelphia, Steve Powers and his crew moved on to Syracuse to transform what has been a colossal barrier between two disparate neighborhoods into a point of interest, a gathering spot, and a conversation.
Powers’ hand-painted signs draw on years of his own work as a painter and graffiti artist, but also on a long tradition of making, advertising, and handcrafting. Coming to Syracuse, a city that exemplifies the model mid-size, post-industrial rustbelt city under reinvention, is part of a national movement of change, a Rustbelt Renaissance, driven by a creative economy.
“The goal of the project is to ultimately bridge the Near Westside community to downtown, which will give access to new markets and resources for residents in the neighborhood,” says Maarten Jacobs, director of the Near Westside Initiative.
