Arts Alliance paints picture of a colorful city

After last year’s Sarasota Keys program added colorful pianos to city sidewalks, the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County is embarking on another effort to brighten streets in the area.

Sarasota resident Jerry Simons brought the idea to the Arts and Cultural Alliance after he and his wife, Sherry, visited Calgary, Canada. Simons remembers being struck by a piece of public art — not only because of the quality of the painting, but also because of the medium on which it was displayed.

“My first thought was, ‘This is a really nice piece of art; it could be on a canvas,’” Simons said. “But it wasn't on a canvas — it was on a utility box.”

That piece of artwork was part of Calgary’s Utility Box Public Art program, in which local artists decorated the city’s large metal utility boxes with paintings. Since its inception, more than 100 utility boxes in the city have been decorated, and similar programs have been adopted in cities throughout North America.
In Simons’ eyes, such a project was a natural match for Sarasota.

“One of the main reasons that my wife and I moved here some years ago was because this is the cultural center of Florida,” Simons said. “This is certainly a cultural experience.”

Once he heard the proposal, Arts and Cultural Alliance Executive Director Jim Shirley was in agreement with Simons’ assessment. At the Jan. 5 City Commission meeting, Shirley outlined the proposal, called Paintbox, to the board. Shirley proposed an initial trial run of up to 20 utility boxes painted by April.

The Arts and Cultural Alliance would raise all funding, and a selection committee would vet the artwork before painting began. Shirley said the Arts and Cultural Alliance was interested in putting out a call to artists to get local painters involved. The group would work with city staff to identify the utility boxes to be used as part of the program.

The City Commission asked Shirley about the longevity of the artwork. He said the proposal was intentionally open-ended; projects in similar cities have been continued indefinitely.

According to the city of Calgary website, murals in that city last two to five years. Shirley said the artists and the Arts and Cultural Alliance would assume responsibility for maintaining the boxes.

Right now, Shirley said, the Arts and Cultural Alliance is working with city staff to sort out the logistics of such a program before bringing the topic back to the City Commission for consideration. If approved, Shirley was confident the support would exist to begin moving quickly to adorn the city’s utility boxes. On the heels of the Sarasota Keys project, Shirley believes residents will respond positively to the Paintbox proposal.

“I think it would be another one of those great community arts programs that continue to brand this city as a city of the arts,” Shirley said.