CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For the second year, Charleston will host an art event to encourage people to think about how the city uses public spaces.
PARK(ing) Day will consist of eight displays on Hale Street between Virginia and Quarrier streets, allowing the space holders to set up interactive activities, art pieces and activities.
Jeff Pierson, the city’s Office of Public Art director, said they were inspired by similar events in other cities.
“Organizations, kind of guerrilla-style, would take a parking space, pay the parking meter all day and create a space in that meter space,” he said.
“We saw what happened in other cities, and we decided in Charleston to do it a different way. We approached organizations and asked them to create a space in those spaces.”
Pierson and the Office of the Public Art will be doing a display he described as “Mr. Potato Head meets Picasso;” it will be an interactive sculpture allowing people to add to the sculpture and pose behind the piece, serving as its head.
A preview event will be held Thursday between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., with the event itself taking place Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.