Billboard off of Alpine Ave NW and Ann St. marks contaminated site with a deep Hollywood Connection
MusicEntertainment / Music 3 months ago 43 Views 0 comments
Filmmaker and Artist Kate Levy spent all summer discovering the deep history of one of Michigan’s most prominent businesses and the sites they left behind.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Overlooking a busy corner on Alpine Avenue NW and Ann Street, a mysterious billboard stood tall for over a month, claiming the site it stood on to be a historical landmark.
“I want people to experience remembering in a different way, so they remember more.”
Artist and Activist, Kate Levy, visiting and teaching in Michigan as part of Grand Valley State University’s artist in residence program for the 2023-24 school year.
“With the billboard, it’s like, ‘wow, I had no idea that this history existed!'”
Levy referring to the plot of land her billboard overlooks, once owned by a bumper stamping and plating company called Gulf and Western Industries, founded in Grand Rapids.
The same Gulf and Western Industries that would go on to purchase a struggling Paramount Pictures, the same Paramount that would bring television shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants and films like The Godfather (Coppola, 1972) to screens all over the world.
Levy, a filmmaker, choosing to mark the site with a billboard. While unconventional, Levy finds it played...
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