Palm Beach County Seeks Artists For Traffic Signal Box Project

Palm Beach County’s Art in Public Places program invites student, emerging and professional artists residing throughout Palm Beach County to participate in Outside the Box, a community public art project that will transform up to 36 ordinary traffic signal boxes into vibrant works of art.

Located in municipal and unincorporated Belle Glade, Pahokee and South Bay, this public infrastructure provides ideal “canvases” to enhance streetscapes and foster a unique sense of place for residents and visitors to the Lake Region.

Artists are invited to create original art, in diverse media, inspired by contemporary and historical attributes of the Lake Region’s natural and human-made environments, communities, recreational activities, education, arts, culture, industry and more.

“Outside the Box offers artists a chance to create site-specific outdoor public art even if their original artwork medium cannot withstand South Florida weather,” Palm Beach County Public Art Program Administrator Elayna Toby Singer said. “Digitally translating images onto vinyl enables us to transform two-dimensional artworks into three-dimensional outdoor sculptures.”

The Palm Beach County Public Art Committee and the Engineering & Public Works Department Traffic Division will select concept art designs. After artists finalize their artwork, county-hired vendors will photograph all artwork, print images onto adhesive vinyl and install them onto pre-selected county and FDOT traffic signal boxes. Artists will keep their original artwork.

The deadline for entry is Sept. 6 at 5 p.m. In mid-September, up to 60 artists will be shortlisted and receive $250 to develop a concept art proposal. In early November, up to 36 artists will be chosen as finalists and awarded an additional $750 to complete their art design. Vinyl art wraps of those designs will then be installed on traffic signal boxes next spring or early summer, culminating with a community event featuring the artists with their concept and final artworks at the library in Belle Glade. A downloadable map highlighting the art with locations will be available.

For the complete Call to Artists and application details, visit http://discover.pbcgov.org/fdo/art/Pages/Calls-to-Artists.aspx.