Matt McCormick says he owes a great deal to Traverse City’s Old Town Playhouse (OTP). Now, he has a way to give back.

McCormick is one of six local artists OTP has commissioned to provide designs that, starting next month, will add a splash of vibrant new color to the playhouse’s brick façade. He also has deep ties to OTP, dating back decades and involving everything from onstage roles to behind-the-scenes work in prop and set design.

“I even met my husband [at OTP] back in 1990, at an audition,” McCormick recalls. “He was directing me in a production of Dangerous Liaisons.”

For all those reasons and many more, McCormick is gratified that his work was among the art chosen to redefine the exterior look of the historic playhouse. Since the early 1970s, OTP – known back then as the “Traverse City Civic Players” – has been housed in that structure at the corner of Eighth and Cass streets. Even at the time, the building was old: The OTP website identifies its digs as the former home of First Christian Church, built in 1903. According to OTP Executive Director Deb Jackson, converting the church into a functional playhouse required a few significant changes, such as getting the church windows “cemented over to provide a dark interior space for live theatre.”

The result was one of the most distinctive aspects of the OTP building: Those big arch-like shapes on the façade, after all, make the spot a can’t-miss downtown landmark. But covering up the windows also created a tan-and-brown aesthetic that Jackson says is often criticized. “People say things like, ‘Those colors are really drab, you should update [the building],’” she says. “I’d hear comments like that, and think, ‘You know what, let's look at the façade as a blank slate. What can we do with it?’”

Jackson started hatching a new vision for the playhouse’s exterior in the past year while traveling to other parts of the country. “I've been to a number of cities that have really embraced the concept of putting art on buildings, and it struck me that it's just such a great attribute to a city,” she tells The Ticker. “My husband and I were in Tallahassee, Florida, and I was standing at a stoplight, and I looked over and realized, ‘Oh my gosh, there's even a painting on the utility box!’ It’s just so fun to walk around a city like that and see all the art.”

Coming back from that trip, Jackson took a look at the OTP building and wondered what it could look like with a similar street art inspiration. That brainstorming session – plus a grant from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council – led to “At the Corner of Art & Culture,” a project designed to bring “local art to the façade of the building at Eighth and Cass streets,” per last month's announcement of the initiative. Each piece of art will fit into one of the playhouse's cemented-over windows spaces.

“The grant is for $10,000, and then we need to come up with a matching $10,000,” Jackson explains. “We're about halfway there [with raising those funds] and have confidence we'll get there. But the grant has a very tight timeline, where the art has to be up by the end of September.”

That tight timeline – plus the size and height of some of the art locations – dissuaded Jackson and OTP from hiring artists to paint murals directly onto the building. Instead, the playhouse is teaming with Image360, a local maker of custom signs and graphics, to take concepts from several local artists and turn them into large banners that will hang inside the cement window spaces on the façade.

To find the right art for the project, OTP and Image360 dreamed up three potential design concepts – a mosaic or stained glass theme, a watercolor painting style, and a more modern/abstract approach – and created digital mock-ups for what each might look like.

“Given the history of the building beginning as a church, the stained glass/mosaic concept was selected,” Jackson says.

With that artistic direction in mind, OTP put out a public call for art submissions back in July. Artists were asked to create pieces that fit the stained glass theme while also visually tying back into one or more of six artistic disciplines: theatre, music, dance, film, literature, and art/painting. 21 artists submitted concepts – some of them providing multiple works for consideration – and OTP held a public open house on August 9 to gather public feedback on the submissions. Designs from McCormick, along with five other local artists – Michele Bien, Mina Cotner, Connie Larson, Erika Wynn, and Janée Marie Meadows – were ultimately selected for the project.

“It was a fun thing that Matt’s work was chosen, because he is what we call a ‘playhouse veteran,’” Jackson says. “He has been involved in productions and set design here for a long time. And when we did the open house, it was a blind survey, so no one knew who the artists were. When Matt’s work was overwhelmingly the favorite, it was a serendipitous thing for us.”

This fall’s project will put art on three sides of the OTP building: the sides facing Cass Street, Eighth Street, and the OTP parking lot. Per Jackson, the rear/alley side of the building “will be held in hopes of future expansion” of the playhouse, which would add new studio space.

McCormick will be the “lead” artist on the project, with his pieces appearing in the three largest windows on the OTP façade. Two of those 22-foot arches are on the Eighth Street side of the building, while the other faces Cass. Three other smaller arched windows on the Eighth and Cass sides will boast pieces by “three individual artists who submitted artwork that we felt coordinated well with Matt’s artwork,” Jackson says. Another four works will be installed on small windows that face the parking lot.

“I really feel flattered and honored and humbled about being chosen to do these three large windows, because OTP will always have a really special place in my heart,” McCormick says. “I don't do as much as I used to do there, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about it. I still love what they do and love the spirit of the place. It’s always been a wonderful place for me, and a great connection to my creative soul.” 

Pictured: A mock-up from Image360 of what the Eighth and Cass sides of OTP could look like once art is up. Per Jackson, “actual placements are pending the receipt of all final art.” One of McCormick's designs, featuring a dancer and trumpets, is visible just right of the OTP marquee.