Odessa, Ector County, Texas
In 2014, Odessa Arts commissioned a public art master plan for the City of Odessa. As part of the planning process, community input meetings were held across the city. In every single meetings someone would raise their hand and say, ‘Would you please do something with the Cloth World sign? It’s a community landmark and it’s just sitting there, rusting.”
The sign in question was built in the 1950’s to advertise the Rock Hill Springs shopping center. Standing at over 90’ tall, it dominated the Odessa landscape. In the 1970’s, the sign was used to advertise Cloth World, a fabric store in the shopping center. Cloth World closed in the late 1990’s, and the sign had remained dormant ever since. It attracted birds, and became a rusting hulk of metal by 2014. Nevertheless, the community still felt that it was a part of the history and charm of Odessa.
A couple of local philanthropists got involved to have the sign and legal permission to access it donated to the City of Odessa. Once that was done, Odessa Arts and the City of Odessa reached an agreement: The City of Odessa invested $150,000 in Hotel Occupancy Tax to commission an artist to reinvent the sign as a piece of public art. Odessa Arts would raise the remainder of the funds necessary to carry out repairs on the sign and prepare it to host the artwork. A nationwide search was conducted and Ray King of Philadelphia was chosen to design a piece that would compliment the original structure and reinvent this community landmark for a new generation.
Odessa Arts worked with local individuals and businesses to raise the additional capital needed. The structure was in very bad shape. Much of the metal was rusted and would beed to be replaced. The entire structure was tented in order to remove decades of lead paint. In all, it took another $500,000 in private funds to get the structure ready for the artwork. During the 16 weeks of repair over 60 hotel room nights were utilized to house repair crew brought in from Farmington, NM to augment the local crew.
In November of 2019, the structure was ready, and Ray King and his crew travelled from Philadelphia to install his work. It took King and his crew three weeks to install and test the artwork, which accounted for an additional 30 room nights. By mid December, the Cloth World sign had been reimagined as the Odessa Spire. At 112’ 7”, this multicolored, lighted structure is now the tallest lighted public art structure in Texas.
Already it has become a beacon for the revitalization of downtown, and is used in web marketing for Odessa Arts, Discover Odessa, and the Chamber of Commerce. It also graces the landing page of the ‘Our Odessa,’ app, which is used by cultural tourists and new residents to learn about their city. A photo of the structure hands in City Hall.
By investing HOT money as part of a public/private partnership, the City of Odessa and Odessa Arts showed a way to use public art as a way to showcase the community as an art destination in West Texas.