Utility Box Project: Open Call for Artists, closed for 2025

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The Avenue Concept (TAC) has paired artists with utility boxes since 2015. Now, we’ve partnered with the City of Providence, Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism, and New Urban Arts to transform utility boxes in Providence during the spring and summer of 2025! 

Eligibility: 

• This call is open to all artists at least 18 years of age.*
• We invite both experienced public artists and emerging public artists and encourage individuals who are in their early careers,  who may be working outdoors or with public art for the first-time, or graffiti artists to learn and gain skills for working in exterior shared spaces.
• To be considered, artists must submit the required materials via the online form, below.
• Design proposals are not required for submission but will be required and approved once artists are notified of their selection.

Artists under 18 are encouraged to express their interest in participating in New Urban Arts youth programs by contacting jeannie@newurbanarts.org. New Urban Arts will guide youth in completing 14 utility boxes during the spring and summer of 2025 with training, supplies, and installation support from TAC. 

In addition to the Open Call, TAC will curate and facilitate the installation of additional boxes for experienced and emerging artists via curation and referral during the Fall of 2025. 

The Open Call for production in 2025 is now closed!

• Add vibrancy and interest in neighborhoods, linking public artworks together and breadcrumbing people through parts of the city.
• Platform for artists to tell their stories in the public on a temporary basis.
• Builds community connecting residents, visitors, and businesses throughout PVD encouraging public art and addressing graffiti challenges.
• Boxes stay on view for at least a year (possibly longer, at the discretion of TAC and project partners), at which point they will be “rotated” and new work will replace existing work, or the boxes will be returned to a neutral color.

Past Utility Box Projects:
In 2021, we created a formal project and facilitated the completion of 13 boxes in Providence and seven in Warren, RI.

The boxes serve as tools for community building connecting residents, visitors, and businesses throughout PVD encouraging public art and addressing graffiti challenges. And through this project, we test ideas and seek feedback from local artists and residents over time. We pay artists and promote their work through social media, as part of our Avenue Public Art Tour app, and on our website. We supply materials and techniques to work effectively and efficiently in public, providing skills for artists to apply for future public art installations with TAC or other programs.

Boxes become connectors for building partnerships with community organizations and businesses, and we’ve facilitated 24 since 2020.

Spring 2021 Downtown & Upper South Providence Boxes

>funded by a generous grant from the Rhode Island Foundation.
>artists: Sara Breslin, Arthur Cayo, Kiera Gonsalves, Lara Henderson, Benny Notorangelo, YSANEL, and ArTwerk

Summer 2021 -Biltmore Park Utility Boxes

>funded by BankNewport City Center Rink, Providence Parks Department.
>artists: Forrest Curl, Kobe Jackson, Rene Gomez

Fall 2021 Vartan Gregorian Elementary School

>funded by  Vartan Gregorian Elementary School, Ward 1 Councilman John Goncalves, Vartan Gregorian Parent Teacher Organization, Fox Point Association
>artist: Natural

We;

• Test ideas and seek feedback from local artists and residents over time. As we iterate TAC’s program, we will continue to
• Pay artists for their time and artistic contribution.
• Promote artists and their work including artist bios, descriptions, stories, and social media handles as part of our Avenue Public Art Tour app, on our website, and through social and media promotion.
• Supply materials and techniques to work effectively and efficiently in the public, providing skills for artists to apply for future public art installations with TAC or other programs.

Box sponsorship covers;

• Artist Fee (all supplies provided by TAC)
• Materials for prep & install: sanding, latex painting prep., artist paint for install
• Project facilitation: contract, training, onsite job site safety & support,installation insurance)
• Wayfinding & Storytelling (exhibit plaque, digital tour, website feature, photography, social media and promotion)

Contact hello@theavenueconcept.org for more information.