The Allied Arts Council is hoping to turn St Joseph street corners into miniature art galleries.  The City of St Joseph and the AAC invite artists to apply for the first “traffic box public art project,” to create and paint art on traffic signal boxes in the downtown area.

Interested artists should visit the Council’s website, www.stjoearts.org for an application.  Artists need to send in a resume, reference contact information, a template for each submitted design (if more than one), and an artist statement for each design, postmarked by June 14, 2012 to the Allied Arts Council office. The chosen artist will receive an honorarium of $1,500.

Mail Submissions, postmarked by June 14, 2012 to:
Allied Arts Council, 118 South 8th Street, St. Joseph, MO 64501

Hand Deliver Submissions by 5:00 p.m. June 14, 2012 to:
Allied Arts Council, 118 South 8th Street, St. Joseph, MO 64501

“This project will help promote art and culture in the community, as well as bring life to a very plain traffic box,” said Jody Carlson, City of St. Joseph’s Director of Public Works.

“We aren’t looking for any particular style, something interesting and alive, yet complimentary,” said Carlson.

The Council and the City also hope to decrease graffiti on traffic signal boxes, while making them artful objects. The 2012 traffic signal box is located at 8th and Edmond streets.

“We’re helping bring art to the downtown area. It’s a whimsical way to bring art to the street corners,” said Allied Arts Council Executive Director Teresa Fankhauser.

The City of Columbia, Missouri has been doing this for some time now, with the “before and after” results shown below.