The above art is a technique of casting impressions of manhole covers. They are made by the production manager of the Greensboro Symphony, Vito Ciccone. Originally from Washington, D.C. Mr. Ciccone has been in North Carolina since the late 1960s, early 1970s when he graduated from UNC Pembroke with a degree in fine art and printmaking.  A person of many talents, Mr. Ciccone has been making these cast impressions for almost a decade, and displays them at Tate Street Coffee House regularly in December.

The process is involved and includes cleaning off the manhole cover, making sure that pedestrians and law enforcement understand that he is making art and not vandalizing. He wears a vest with the word “artist” on the back, to help assuage people’s concerns. Mr. Ciccone also makes the paper used in the process, makes the impressions, and then adds color, and finally stamps on the street address and longitude and latitude of where the impression was made. We had to do some internet sleuthing to find out the back story on the above pieces because, at Tate Street Coffee House, we couldn’t find his name anywhere, only a small piece of paper with “make me an offer I can’t refuse” and a phone number.*  The impressions really document a community. For example, on the left, you see that Greensboro was founded in 1808. It is easier to see the documentation around the perimeter of the one on the right. 

We don’t know how much longer they’ll be up, but as of yesterday, they were still on display at Tate Street.

* A big thank you to the Greensboro News & Record and the fine writing of Dawn Kane, whose article appeared (HERE) in the paper 12/7/2017.