On the corner of West Fayette and West streets in Armory Square stands a billboard with a love letter written to the city. Each month the iconic image and accompanying handwritten note changes, but part of the message always remains the same: “Dear Syracuse, With Love.”

The billboard acts as a perpetual reminder to residents that despite previous economic hardships, Syracuse still has much to offer. And it’s just one of the many public art displays Quinton Fletchall has created to lift the city’s spirits.

“I wanted to encourage people to show gratitude to the place they call home,” said Fletchall, an Imagining America Engagement Scholar in SU’s Office of Community Engagement and Economic Development.

Since moving to Syracuse six years ago to study industrial design, Fletchall has made it his mission to change the way the younger generation views the city. In order to combat the negative voices, he created several civic engagement projects downtown and along the Connective Corridor, including a ‘Cusescapes photo contest, “Dear Syracuse, With Love” billboard series and an interactive window display at the Landmark Theatre.

He didn’t understand why residents were so angry about the post-industrial state of the city, because it seemed to be rapidly growing.

“I saw a city with new eyes and that was changing. I was excited about that and it’s why I stayed,” said Fletchall, who received his bachelor’s degree from the College of Visual and Performing Arts last spring and began a graduate program in communication and rhetorical studies this year.

As an Engagement Scholar, Fletchall also works to improve the user experience of the Connective Corridor. He’s designed new maps, wayfinding signage and guides to assist students and encourage exploration off the Hill.

When Fletchall launched the ‘Cusescapes photo contest last April, he gave students a vague task: “Go into the city and find things that are beautiful.” The end result was 140 photos from SU students and residents, which the Corridor used for noncommercial purposes throughout Syracuse. Many of the photos — including late night skyline shots of Interstate 81 and Clinton Square — were used in the “Dear Syracuse, With Love” series.

Projects like these help cultivate positive relationships between the university and the city, as well as provide an opportunity for students to display their best work, said Marilyn Higgins, SU’s vice president of community engagement and economic development.

“He didn’t just write a paper or give a lecture; he did something real,” Higgins said.

This month, Fletchall unveiled an interactive window art project at the Landmark that encourages passersby to share their opinions about what they are pleased with and what they’d like to improve in the city. Window markers hang from the theater rooftop inviting residents to fill in the blanks of these prompts behind the glass:

In Syracuse I love…
In Syracuse I am…
In Syracuse I want to be…
In Syracuse I wish…

Every so often, Fletchall will walk by to erase any profanity that jokesters may have left on the glass. Most residents use the display in a proactive way, he said, but there is always risk for occasional vandalism with public art.

Fletchall’s current project is a 65-foot mural that commemorates the city’s historical innovation and civic projects such as the Erie Canal. He was awarded a $7,000 grant from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor to pay for the construction of the mural, called “Let Us Continue,” after his supervisor encouraged him to apply.

His ability to interact with all demographics is a real talent, said Linda Dickerson Hartsock, Fletchall’s supervisor, and director of community engagement and economic development, as well as overseer of the Connective Corridor.

“Quinton has found a great way to think about the past and use it to start a conversation about the future,” Hartsock said. “Syracuse infuses him — mind and spirit — and his academic work and civic life exemplify it.”

Since high school, Fletchall has been drawn to the design process. He began working as a draftsman at an architecture firm back home, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, before realizing it didn’t quite grab him. When he discovered that industrial design was his calling, he had to produce a portfolio out of thin air. So Fletchall scrambled to build one with his architecture drafts, sketches of some kitchen inventions he’d thought up and a drawing of his brother’s cat.

Fletchall took the non-traditional route into VPA, but quickly blossomed into an excellent leader, said Donald Carr, an industrial and interaction design professor.

“He has an understanding of all the components — how design can act as a catalyst for change,” Carr said. “These are the kind of connections I would hope all students would be making.”

After watching shoppers get trampled in the chaos of Black Friday in 2011, Fletchall turned toward social design to fulfill his interests. It was a specialization that improved the community and focused on engagement rather than profit margins.

“It became hard for me to continue making consumer products that were just fulfilling a bottom line,” Fletchall said. “To me, design is wasted on these things; it can be used for better purposes.”

So many people focus on the past, he said, and “I’m concerned with the future.”

Published on April 23, 2014 at 1:44 am

Contact Liz: egsawyer@syr.edu | @3sawyer