Jorge Boone – Analog Artist Digital World

A small black and white photo framed on the back wall of Snap! Orlando shows the historic Cameo Theater with its original signage. Building owner Jorge Boone applied to the Orlando City Counsel to have a replica of the original Cameo
sign put back on top of the building “to re-establish the identity of the
building and bring a sense of history and place to the area.” The
project is expected to cost around $29,000 and the city agreed to
Boone’s request for $14,000 through the facade program. The new
18-foot-long sign will use the same retro font as the original, and it
will be lit with more than 300 LED bulbs.

The Cameo Theater first opened opened on Christmas Day, 1940. It was a latecomer in Orlando’s movie theaters, and was located just a block west of the Vogue Theater. Open for only a few years (maybe less than five), the Cameo sat abandoned for years, save for an occasional booking by a evangelical group.

The building was remodeled and occupied for years by IBM. Since then it has had many occupants, and has often been vacant. The marquee still stands.

In October 2008, it was in use as a live performance space, but had closed by Summer of 2009. By early-2010, it had reopened and was available ‘For Rent’, and several groups had regular performances, primarily live music.

Today the Cameo Theater is home to Snap! Orlando, a hip gallery that is bringing cutting edge exhibits to Orlando. The owners, Patrick and Holly Kahn also have expanded Snap into a gallery space in Miami and they seem to have finally created a gallery worthy of a top class city here in Orlando. Nearly 1200 people came to
celebrate Snaps one year anniversary, and the lighting of the Cameo
sign on January 23, 2015. As Patrick said “Thank you to all of our partners, supporters, Snap! team members
and friends who joined us last night! Our deepest appreciation and love
to the exceptional Jorge Boone and Magdalena Dalsjo for reviving the
Cameo sign, and sponsoring the public art fence, created by Chris Scala. In 2015 Snap is planning a citywide event with pop-up art
exhibits, lectures with guest speakers, workshops, and other educational
and cultural events. Announcements soon.”

On March 22nd, I went to the Cameo Theater for a display of garbage as art. The Cameo had been closed for well over a year due to fire code violations so I was curious to see it open it’s doors again. UCF
architecture student, Jorge Boone, who recently purchased the Cameo, Wes Featherston and James Cornetet of Process Architecture, LLC hosted the art installation.

Two amazing
installations created by ten talented UCF architecture students in the alley beside the Cameo. The
students were tasked with studying post-consumer waste and developing
innovative new techniques for transforming these materials into building
systems.

One group re-purposed plastic grocery bags using tribal basket weaving techniques
to create a structural 40’x10’ canopy that sores over the Cameo’s
courtyard. The bag canopy was tied to a ladder above my head and various window bars and metal stairs. It started raining as I sketched and unfortunately the canopy didn’t protect from the rain because of it’s open weave.

The other group of students examined the structural nature of
paper mache egg cartons to create a pair of 12’x20’ wall panels that
will create the only ‘quiet’ zone in the district due to the natural
acoustic qualities of the cartons.

Several new designs for the theater were lying on tables inside the Theater. Then both seemed to focus on sprucing up the Theater’s facade. The interior was gutted clean. One student was sweeping the dusty floor. A talent agency is still upstairs as well as John Hurst’s animation storyboard artist studio.

Hopefully the new owner will resurrect the Cameo since it was one of my favorite venues to sketch. The place was raw and uncluttered making it ideal for large installations and cutting edge experimental shows. Perhaps the Phoenix can rise again from the fire codes ashes.