This New York Times article about English artists making use of vacant commercial space for temporary galleries is attracting a lot of attention (it's one of the most popular articles on the site), and it makes us wonder if something similar could work in Athens, Ga. What to do with the empty big-box stores has been a perennial issue of debate in the Classic City, as this article from the Athens Banner-Herald in January shows (the photo's from it). One space on the ground floor of the Bottleworks development on Prince has already been used by ATHICA to show art, presumably while the owners are looking for a tenant, so why couldn't similar installations work elsewhere? Why couldn't the space that was Steve and Barry's house a temporary gallery devoted to large works of art? Admittedly, many of the vacant commercial spaces in Athens aren't in central areas of town, which would seem to make them less appealing for this kind of purpose, but what other good are they doing sitting empty?
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