THE GIANT ORANGE ARTVENTURE

If you’ve heard a rumor about an invasion of giant oranges, well, it’s true! They are coming to the city of Riverside—and it’s about time! Already there have been cows in Chicago, and moose in Toronto---angels in Los Angeles and apples in New York…it’s about time Riverside had its very own outdoor sculptural art extravaganza—and it’s appropriately entitled “The Giant Orange Artventure”.What began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1998 with the concept of placing individually hand-painted, life-size cow creations along city streets has spawned a whole menagerie of art in cities throughout the world. Wherever these imaginative and humorous outdoor exhibits pop up there is also a dramatic increase in visitors to view them. In Chicago the ‘Cows On Parade’ exhibit translated to more than a million visitors and an estimated economic impact of $200 million. In Toronto the Moose exhibit raised $1.4 million for Canada’s Olympic Athletes and local Toronto charities. It has worked equally well in small towns such as Belfast, Maine (population 30,000) where the first annual ‘Bear-fest’ netted over $48,000 in charity dollars to the community and won Belfast the Governor’s Award for Tourism. The Riverside Art Museum and Riverside Art Alliance have brought the concept to Riverside in a big way! Thirty* giant oranges will be arriving in Riverside this fall, earmarked to be designed and painted by local artists. “This project offers a great opportunity for the most talented artists in our area to be recognized and appreciated on a very public level. It’s also good for the downtown community, the City, businesses, tourists, families, art patrons, and, of course, the Riverside Art Museum”, states RAM Executive Director, Daniel Foster. Each orange will be sponsored by a company or individual and then ‘scattered’ throughout the Downtown Arts & Culture District, from the Courthouse to the Mission Inn. Part of the ‘Artventure’ will be to take a special map and tour all thirty* oranges! The oranges will be on display from June 2006 through September of 2006, and then will be auctioned, with proceeds benefiting the Riverside Art Museum. Each orange will be sponsored for $5000. This not only covers all the costs of the giant orange, it also allows for an artists fee and the cost of paints and materials. Each four foot round orange will be attached to a concrete base for security and displayed with a plaque bearing the proud name of the sponsor, the artist and the title of the Orange! What can the “Giant Orange Artventure” do for Riverside? It will make public art fun and accessible to everyone in the city and beyond. It will create an eye-catching exhibit that entices families to follow the ‘Artventure’ and learn about the wonderful cultural and historic resources in downtown Riverside. It will promote Riverside---after all, what is more symbolic of our city than an orange? It will involve businesses in the arts. It will give artists in our community a public forum for creativity. Finally, it will act as a vehicle for the non-profit Riverside Art Museum to raise necessary operating funds. The concept is ‘ripe’ to take off!

Ernie Hernandez is a local graphic designer/artist inspired by customization of cars from imports to traditional hot rods. He’s been designing for 8 years, running his own graphic studio, GD Solutions (design, print & paint), part time and working at Gorilla Marketing (promotional items) as an art director.
Says Hernandez, “California is known for having some of the best hot rods. Since I love cars, love painting, and love Southern California, I thought it would be great to pay tribute to these through this project. This will be my first time painting an off the wall object, especially one this large. I plan to have a lot of fun painting my orange.”

For more information, please call the Riverside Art Museum, or contact Kathy Allavie at kallavie@aol.com. *Thirty Two oranges have actually been sponsored!

• http://www.thegiantorange.com/ <-- Official Site