Local News
The artists behind the iconic landmark took the sign down for some rehab, but it will soon return to its glory with a party to boot.
People walking through Central Square have been doing double takes lately. The towering metal frame that usually holds the neighborhood’s iconic rainbow sign is suddenly bare, leaving passersby wondering where it went.
Well, a few weeks ago, the original artists took on the onerous task of removing the 30-foot sign after it was hit with graffiti and needed some rehab.
“People have come to love it,” said Michael Monestime, president of the Central Square Business Improvement District. “It’s a landmark of sorts. When it goes down, people want to know what is happening.”
It was originally a Blockbuster video sign with a bright blue background and yellow letters. Over the years — after the video store’s closure in 2009 — the sign became an “eyesore” as it was vandalized, rusted, and fell apart, said Monestime.
In 2018, the Cambridge Office of Economic Development provided a grant to commission two artists, Kenji Nakayama and Dylan Gough, through the business Need Signs, Will Paint, to develop a new design.
The pair scraped off the old lettering and redesigned it in a retro, neon-sign style, with a rainbow to represent the LGBTQ+ community and vibrant colors to match the culturally diverse neighborhood.
The artists then reinstalled the 30-foot double-sided sign, which sits above the non-profit The Street Theory Collective at 541 Massachusetts Ave.
It is a nonconforming sign, which the city grandfathered in, Monestime said. The only change allowed to it was painting it; the size and shape had to remain the same. The artists are using the original metal plates.
“We’re working with an artifact,” Monestime said.
Monestime said that when recent construction on the gallery was underway, scaffolding went up outside the building, making it easy for people to tag the sign. It is down the street from Graffiti Alley.
“It was already tagged a little but got really beat up at that time,” he said.
So, the BID decided to recommission the artists to fix it up. The artists completed it on Wednesday, Monestime said, with plans to reinstall the sign sometime next week, depending on the weather.
But if you think the sign will quietly return to its spot towering over Central Square, Monestime has some news.
On Friday, March 13, the BID will host a party to welcome back the sign, featuring a double IPA from Barewolf Brewery, with the sign as a logo on one of its tallboys. It will also feature new lighting from Masary Studios to illuminate the sign at night, along with live DJ music.
Details on the party are still being finalized.
“The good news is that the sign is coming in all its glory,” Monestime said.
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