The Color Wall

[...] While the city council haggles over the Lightner Center and the hefty chunk of its budget dedicated to public art, further out of town down on Hillsborough Street, a public art corpse awaits reanimation: Joe Cox’s Color Wall. Cox taught at the NCSU School of Design during its glory years, and while he’s primarily known as a painter he also created at least three kinetic light sculptures. The shifting array of color bars at the base of D.H. Hill Library has been (mostly) dark for years now, with only a brief revival. Still, it has survived and could be rebuilt, unlike Cox’s sculpture that was attached to the BB&T on Hillsborough Street–that was simply discarded when they installed the ATM. The fine folks at Goodnight Raleigh have set up the Color Wall site to raise money and raise awareness. In particular, Karl Larson (aka Raleighboy) has led the charge. Now some other fine folks have agreed to sell Joe Cox paintings to help raise the necessary funds. Those of us who can’t afford a Cox painting still benefit by seeing them hanging up at Lee Hansley Gallery. [...]