Outdoor Is In

Outdoor Is In is a pop-up fashion exhibition of 19 dresses created from re-imagined and recycled vinyl billboards and organized by Adams Outdoor Advertising.

The show, which features a dress made from a recycled Mint Museum billboard along with billboard dresses from 15 other local and national businesses and nonprofits, is open FREE to visitors during regular museum operating hours from October 19 – November 6 at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts, 500 South Tryon Street. (11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. Sunday).

The show is in partnership with the Mint’s Year of the Woman, which is bringing two nationally pioneering exhibitions to Charlotte. Women of Abstract Expressionism, organized by the Denver Art Museum, is making its East Coast debut, and Fired Up: Contemporary Glass by Women Artists from the Toledo Museum of Art will be on view exclusively at the Mint. Both open to the public October 22, the 80th anniversary of the Mint’s founding as the state’s first art museum, and will be open FREE during a community celebration weekend October 22-23.

The concept for the Outdoor Is In fashion show came from a dress designed by Flavia Lovatelli, a Columbia, S.C. artist whose art was featured on a billboard as part of ArtPop, a collaboration between the Arts & Science Council and Adams Outdoor Advertising of Charlotte. Flavia at the time of being chosen for ArtPop was living in Charlotte (2014) and has since moved to Columbia. Lovatelli transformed her ArtPop billboard into a ball gown and inspired Adams Outdoor Advertising to challenge her and six other artists to re-imagine other billboards for an invite-only runway show at Mint Museum Uptown on Sept. 29. ArtPop is a national 501c3, headquartered and founded here in Charlotte whose mission is to promote local artists work through available media space. Art + Public Outdoor Project = ArtPop. The program is in 11 other cities.

Other billboard dress designers are Elyse Frederick of Charlotte, Edelweiss De Guzman of Mooresville, Rocio Llusca of Charlotte, Teresa Rench of Fort Mill, Althea Womack of Augusta, and Marynel Watters of Cornelius. The featured billboards are Anheuser-Busch, Dunkin Donuts, Carolinas Healthcare System, Chick-Fil-A, Coca-Cola, Fink’s Jewelers, Hendrick Honda on South Boulevard, Husqvarna, Miller Coors, Killingsworth Environmental, McDonald’s, The Mint Museum, Nichols Store, Pepsi, Second Harvest Food Bank, and Wells Fargo.

*Flavia, Elyse Frederick & Rocio Llusca 3 of the designers in the Mint/Adams couture are all current or former #ArtPopCLT artists.

For more information about ArtPop, please visit their website ArtPopStreetGallery.com .