GRAND RAPIDS, Mi. — Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. has a program called the Window Wonderland Activation and Decoration Program that provides grant money to restaurants, bars and businesses that want to help celebrate the winter season.
Social House jumped on board, bringing in artist Jen Erin to create a larger-than-life mural of the Grinch on their window. Part of the deal is that the business has to keep the art up for a certain amount of time, so that's why he's outlived Christmas - and may evolve for the upcoming holidays.
It's a way to brighten up what's traditionally a dark time of year, but also to showcase what our local artists can do and give them plenty of exposure. Jen Erin says, "It's really exciting. I've never had an opportunity to have something like this displayed downtown, in the heart of downtown.
It was cool to be painting and have heavy traffic and hear the comments and compliments and how excited they were to go in and like try the food and everything, so it's just very exciting."
It's an exciting program for the businesses as well, Mandi Sala is the General Manager of the Social House. She says, "Winter can be dingy and dark and we wanted to bring some light to the street that doesn't usually see a ton. Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.'s window activation grant, it's super easy to apply, any business can do it. You can apply for up to $5000 and they basically reimburse you for having this art put on the window."
Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. is accepting applications for this project on a rolling basis. Head to downtowngr.org/announcements/2020/11/window-wonderland-program for more information.
For more information about artist Jen Erin, head to her Facebook page.
