Hollywood is seeing a positive twist to the Occupy movement with gatherings of artists determined to take back the city’s downtown district and restore its attraction for art, entertainment and dining.

“It’s the Hollywood version of ‘occupy’ — not radical in the political sense but radical for art sake,” said David Erickson, a downtown Hollywood resident and Realtor, one of the project’s organizers.

Armed with paint brushes, acrylics, spray and house paint, a dozen South Florida artists showed up one night this week at the Ramada Inn on Harrison Street, to give the hotel facade an extreme makeover.

They began applying a frenzy of color to 30 blank rectangles and ovals, different sizes and framed in red wood and paint, dotted the exterior walls.

“We want people to stroll along the sidewalk and see an art gallery, right here, in public view, on the street,’’ hotel owner Ben Cohen said. “It’s beautiful.”

Abstract artist Chris Riggs, best known for his “Chris Riggs for Mayor” shows in New York City, used streaks of pastel-colored house paint for the first coat inside two frames.

Then Miami street artist Trek6, who had a recent show at Art Basel, put spray paint to work for a bold tropical parrot inside an oval frame.

Passersby stopped to gawk, chat and take cell phone pictures.

Mindy Angress remembers the late 1980s and ’90s when downtown was a hotspot for artists and many storefronts were studios. She compared it to South Beach.

“It was Lincoln Road on the weekends. It was full,” said Angress, a manager at the Ramada.

The movement, called SmART, was created in early December by Erickson, Alex Terife, owner of Pizza Rustica on Hollywood Boulevard, and Nick Pereira, Terife’s business partner.

SmART aims to bring people downtown, said Terife, whose restaurant already shows off a 6-foot by 3-foot wall painting by Riggs.

Every Tuesday starting at 6 p.m., a dozen or more artists are set to paint the neighborhood beautiful. SmART is making it easy by bringing in lights, scaffold, ladders, painter’s tape and other supplies.

“The place will come alive again with music, emerging performers, artists of all sorts,’’ Terife said. “We won’t stop until art is everywhere.”

Word is getting around, said Xiomara Cadiz, a self described “budding artist” from Hollywood.

. She read about the movement on Facebook, then headed downtown with photographer friend Jorge Castillo to check it out.

“It only takes a little work for a lot of improvement,” Cadiz said.

Several artists got a head start in early December by painting murals on the building’s exterior along the alleyway the separates Harrison Street from Hollywood Boulevard.

Three pieces also were finished on balconies overlooking the second floor patio area. Two walls jutting about three stories high from the pool area will feature massive works visible from the street.

“This is just the beginning,” said Cohen. “It’s the big push that hopefully will get everyone on the bandwagon.”

So far, through word of mouth and bolstered by the monthly Hollywood ArtWalk every third Saturday, 18 downtown stores and restaurants already are hanging mini art shows featuring movement artists.

The neighborhood is primed for a hangout spot for artists and for art lovers.

“But to have an art scene, artists have to be able to pay rent. In Miami, the price is already right,” Riggs said.

Hollywood’s new free parking availability is already making people happy, Cohen said.. Since Dec. 1, parking is free 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Free on-street parking is allowed in three-hour increments from 8 a.m-8 p.m.

Erickson wants to recreate the area’s former artist village ambience. He already has resurrected the city’s Mardi Gras Fiesta Tropicale and organizes the annual Hollywood Beach Clambake on the Broadwalk. He also helps coordinate the Broward County Fair.

His attitude is “if you build it, they will come.”

“Art always worked for downtown Hollywood in the past,’’ he said. “Now we have new, young artists looking for places to put their names out and be seen. It’s all grassroots; it’s all volunteer. It’s all from the heart.”