Art plays key role in Lockport’s revitalization.

Steven Streit, the mayor of Lockport and an artist, said money alone won’t revitalize a city.

A city also needs the energy and exactment that art brings, said Streit. Those are reasons for many of Lockport’s projects the last few years, everything from customized ducks to poetry beneath underpasses.

A ribbon-cutting for two more will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at 222 E. 9th St. (west parking lot) in Lockport, and the community is invited.

Lockport, White Oak Library District and the Lockport Summer Art Series committee will hold the ceremony to commemorate two new murals and the completion of its StoryWalk in Central Square. Refreshments will be served afterward in the gymnasium.

Streit, a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago and owner of Oh! Design Group, designed the murals.

He also will be part of performance art Dec. 14 for the monthly Stories R Us event, hosted by Barbara Eberhard. The storytelling event will take at 6:30 p.m. at Nik and Ivy Brewing Co. at 1026 S. State St. in Lockport.

“I like telling stories,” Streit said. “Who runs for office and doesn’t tell stories?”

Streit said his story will revolve around one of three topics: a good mayor story, serving in the Navy or parenthood 1970s style.

“My guess is they’ll want a mayor story,” Streit said. “It’s the only unique thing I bring to the table.”

Streit said the presence of art makes a space “cool and interesting.” That’s why Lockport seeks ways to help artists “focus their talents and their energies and passion into redeveloping downtown.”

“Design, I 100% believe, plays a part in giving a place a feel that you want to be in it,” Streit said.

StoryWalk “blends the enjoyment of family-friendly reading with the advantages of being active outdoors,” according to a news release from the city of Lockport and the White Oak Library District. Visitors stroll from holder to holder, which hold the pages of a children’s book. The White Oak Library plans to change out the book four times a year and list the current title on its website. “Little Elliot, Fall Friends” by Mike Curato is the book currently displayed.

In 2018, the Gaylord Building launched “unLOCK: Merging Art & Industry,” a project where 10 artists lauded Lockport’s industrial heritage by creating new art, which were installed in various locations throughout Lockport.

This included the Lockport Poetry Project, which created art from poetry. Sam Love of Indiana displayed the results beneath the underpass between the Gaylord and Norton buildings – using wheat paste so the words will stand up to both the elements and the passing of time, Love said in a 2018 Herald-News story.

Plainfield artist John McDavitt created a mural featuring Abraham Lincoln’s connection to the I&M Canal inside the Lockport Branch of the White Oak Library and invited the community to help him paint it.

“The goal for this program is to utilize art as an economic development tool, to attract people to the downtown district, to stay longer, to participate,” Pam Owens, director of the Gaylord Building, said in the 2018 Herald-News story.

Owens said in the story that the project was possible through a $50,000 Our Town grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.

Then in 2020, Lockport supported 20 of its small business negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with its “Keep Our Small Business Afloat” program. The program raised about $60,000 through 20 corporate sponsors and produced 20 36-inch customized ducks.

The Illinois State Museum in Lockport selected the artists. The ducks were placed outside in various locations around Lockport.

Wendy Streit, Steve Streit’s wife and chairman of Lockport’s summer arts series in 2020, said in a 2020 Herald-News story that the “Keep Our Small Business Afloat” program showed how something good can result from a challenging situation.

“I think it’s really important that we don’t lose sight of the arts and what an impact they make on a city – and how they impact a community,” Wendy Streit said.

[ A $25,000 grant from the Canadian National Railroad in conjunction with America in Bloom beautifies area near I&M Canal ]

Five years ago, Steven Streit drew inspiration from the old “ghost murals” – nostalgic advertisements on the exterior of old buildings that are “very Americana,” he said – to create three graphic murals that were framed and placed at three different locations off State Street.

The murals combined elements of Lockport and its three sponsors at the time. The murals depicted Dellwood Park, a motorcycle (a nod to Uncle Richie’s Place, a favorite spot for motorcycle enthusiasts, Steven Streit said) and a 19th century woman with a “Hey, shop downtown” vibe, he said.

Bettenhausen Automotive and Homer Tree Service sponsored the new murals. The first combines a Bettenhausen Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM and an homage to Route 66. The second keeps the motorcycle theme, Steven Streit said.

“Artists and designers have a passion that brings excitement and energy,” Steven Streit said. “When you look, especially all throughout the country, when you look at old downtown buildings in the 19th century or early part of the 20th century that are kind of tired and neglected – how do you bring the energy back? I think there not only has to be money, it has to do with people and bringing those people that have the passion and the energy and the excitement. That’s why bringing art and performance are very important to seeing those kinds of revitalizations and reenergizing places.”

For information on StoryWalk, visit kellogghubbard.org/storywalk.

For information on art and culture in Lockport, visit cityoflockport.net/200/Arts-Culture.