Cities across the United States have used art to beautify certain fixtures in their communities. One northern Illinois city is using this idea for its ongoing initiative.
Rockford artists are wrapping their creativity around utility boxes. This neighborhood beautification project stems from the Rockford Area Arts Council initiative called ART FOR IMPACT.
Victor Rivera is an artist and advocate for art. His box decoration will resemble one of his original works.
“It's a design of a girl who actually passed away many years ago,” he said. “When she passed away, this was in like the late 90s, there was actually a mural of her face painted on the wall on South Main.”
This is the mural that exposed him to street art. Rivera said the project is ideal for artists who are just starting out. Especially those who haven’t done a mural.
“It's also just great for the neighborhoods,” he said, “because now there’s just more art, you know, these boxes are so plain, they're so boring. It's nice that we can see stuff on our daily drives that, you know, want us to ask questions like, ‘why is that there.’”
The “ART FOR IMPACT - Utility Box Wraps” project is a partnership with the City of Rockford’s neighborhood improvement initiative. The goal of this initiative is to improve neighborhoods that need more resources. Over 50 boxes will be transformed.
