In 2020, City of Eugene Cultural Services developed Windowfront Exhibitions in the loneliest winter days of the pandemic as an initiative to support local artists and bring the vitality of art to the heart of Eugene. The goal of the project was to partner with downtown property managers to transform empty storefronts into temporary installation spaces for artists and arts organizations to present their work.
The exhibitions rotated seasonally to continuously display new works by established and emerging artists and organizations.
“Windowfront Exhibitions had a positive influence on the look and feel of downtown, particularly during the lowest points of the pandemic. It brought a flash of color and expression to our streetscapes in places that would have otherwise stood empty and dark. It’s also brought the City, property owners, property managers and artists together around investing in our downtown.”
-Eric Brown, Downtown Manager
A total of 74 installations featuring works from over 90 regional artists, curators and arts organizations were presented between December 2020 and May 2024. Artworks on display represented a wide range of artistic mediums, including painting, sculpture, fiber art, digital projection, photography, mosaic, found object art and a variety of multimedia creations.
Several of the artists and curators presenting works in Windowfront Exhibitions opened their spaces to the public and interacted with community members at unique pop-up galleries during monthly First Friday ArtWalks.
After more than three years, the program met great success as most of these empty spaces were rented and are now thriving local businesses. With vacant locations becoming scarce in downtown Eugene, the winter 2024 series was the last to be displayed in storefront windows.
But that isn't the end of Eugene's public art exhibits...
The closing of Windowfront Exhibitions paved the way for City Exhibitions, a new initiative by Cultural Services to feature artwork in four public locations throughout downtown Eugene. These locations have been secured for long-term use and provide continuing rotational exhibition opportunities. The new spaces will be unveiled in the summer and fall of 2024.
Cultural Services would like to extend special thanks to all the partners who made Windowfront Exhibitions possible:
Actor's Cabaret, ArtCity, Asian American Council of Oregon, Broadway Place Apartments, Campbell Commercial Real Estate, Concentric Sky, Downtown Eugene Merchants, Evans, Elder Brown & Seubert, Harmonic Laboratory, Investors Real Estate Solutions LLC, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Kesey Enterprises, Lane Arts Council, Lane Council of Governments, McDonald Theater, Pacific Real Estate Services Inc., Passionflower Design, Pipeworks Studios, Summit Bank and Toxic Wings.
"Seeing Within (Seeing Without)" multimedia exhibition by UO students Abby Pierce, Audrey Rycewicz, Zachary Smith, Tahoe Mack, Ellen O’Shea and Anastasiya Gutnik.