Look up!

They don't dream big. Their ultimate mission is to put art everywhere -- in galleries, on buildings, in people's homes. For now, they'll settle for two billboards. \nYour Art Here -- a public art billboard project, was created by four friends in August 2002. Recent IU graduate Owen Mundy together with senior photography majors Shana Berger, Alyssa Hill and Nathan Purath wanted to create a forum for visual communication. They chose billboards as their medium to connect to Bloomington residents and IU students.\n"We wanted to take a hand in the most dominant form of visual communication," Berger said. "Billboards aren't available for exhibit to most people, yet they are seen by a large number of people."\nIn 1999, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City placed a variety of art on billboards throughout the city. The Monroe County Community School Corporation has rented a billboard to showcase student art in the past. Taking this idea a step further, the founders of Your Art Here wanted to provide individuals with access to this form of communication.\n"Our mission is to give a more leveled playing field," Purath said. "We believe that everyone has the right to be the media."\nThe idea of YAH was born out of "the frustration of being an artist" -- all four are photographers. Without adequate gallery space to showcase large-scale projects, the Bloomington art community lacked a valuable resource.\nYOUR ART HERE PROJECTS\nIn December 2002, YAH held its first event -- Billboard Nation. It was a competition among college students for two billboard spaces. The $5 submission fee for the contest went toward acquiring the billboards. \nHoosier Outdoor Advertising, a Bloomington-based company, owns most billboards in Monroe County and surrounding area. According to the agency's Web site, a billboard in Bloomington costs $800 per month for a one-month lease, while a six-month lease requires a payment of $760 per month and $720 per month for a year-long lease.\n"Hoosier Outdoor worked out a deal for us," Berger said. \nThe competition and show took place Dec. 14 at Space 101. The group received close to a 100 entries -- most information was passed by word-of-mouth through the Bloomington art community. The main requirement was for the artwork to function on a large-scale billboard space. Smaller artwork was reproduced and adjusted to fit the billboards. \nAndrew Glenn, senior fine arts student, and Dana Sperry, SoFA Gallery associate director, won the competition. Glenn's piece titled "Figure Study" went up on the North Walnut Street billboard close to the State Road 37 ramp. Sperry's piece, "Making My Neighborhood Luckier One Penny At A Time," can be viewed on the billboard at Fourth and Walnut streets.\nNATIONAL YOUTH ART MONTH\nSponsored by the Council for Art Education, Inc., March has been designated as National Youth Art Month. It is a nationwide celebration of young people and art produced by them. Bloomington has celebrated Youth Art Month for the past 30 years with a celebration of student work. \nIn collaboration with the MCCSC, Your Art Here has sponsored a competition for grades 1 to 6 and 7 to 12. The contest ended Feb. 7, and the winners will be announced next week. One winner from each category will have his or her art exhibited on one of two billboards. \n"I was very happy to have the opportunity for our students to have work displayed on one or two billboards," said Diane Davis-Deckard, art teacher at Bloomington High School North. "The student work on display this year will be based on the theme of war and peace."\nYAH offers billboards as an alternative for galleries. For younger students, this is an especially exciting opportunity, Davis-Deckard said.\nThe works submitted must be visually appealing and large enough to be displayed on a billboard. \n"When it's clustered, it's hard to appreciate," Mundy said. "We're looking for something that would look good on a billboard."\nThe work submitted must not be advertising -- it must be art. YAH also has to watch out for anything potentially obscene. They do not accept profanity or nudity in submissions. \n"We're looking for stuff that would get a response," Purath said. "It's not just art on a wall -- we want a piece that the viewers could interact with."\nStudents, who participated in the competition, have the added benefits of seeing their work on a billboard, which means their potential is being showcased to the community.\n"Having two venues supporting student art work sends a positive message to the community about the value of art," Davis-Deckard said.\nTHE FUTURE\nOriginally from three different cities, Berger, Mundy, Purath and Hill plan to stay in Bloomington to run the organization. They hope to expand and acquire a permanent billboard space. \n"We want to serve as a liaison between artists and the community," Hill said. "Art can be everywhere"