Like applying a brand new coat of nail polish one toenail at a
time, Gilroy could soon be speckled with aesthetic pops of color
when dozens of utility boxes get gussied up with custom murals.
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Like applying a brand new coat of nail polish one toenail at a time, Gilroy could soon be speckled with aesthetic pops of color when dozens of utility boxes get gussied up with custom murals.
It’s part of the City of Gilroy’s Traffic Signal Pilot Project, a strategy serving beautification and anti-graffiti purposes. In addition to enlivening various intersections with public artwork, it’s a crime-fighting cue taken by Gilroy from its neighbors near the water.
Since commissioning artists to paint its utility boxes, Santa Cruz has decreased graffiti vandalism to those boxes, according to a staff report provided during Monday night’s City Council meeting at 7351 Rosanna St.
“It has also been our experience that with the murals painted on a couple of walls in the City of Gilroy, the amount of graffiti to those walls has been reduced. Murals seem to discourage continued graffiti to that object,” the report states. “Not only that, it will also hopefully reduce the amount of staff resources utilized in graffiti abatement.”
If the project proves successful and discourages taggers, the city will hopefully move ahead with the project, said Gilroy Police Sgt. Kurt Svardal. At this point, local volunteer artists would have the chance to get onboard with the effort, he explained.
The City has hired Santa Cruz artist Bruce Harman to spearhead the pilot, which addresses the four most frequently tagged boxes in Gilroy. The artwork will pay homage to Garlic Capital attributes such as the box at Monterey and Farrell streets, which sports garlic bulb hot air balloons drifting in a blue sky. Harman is currently painting birds of paradise on the box at Monterey and Third streets before moving on to the boxes at Monterey and 10th and Princevalle and 10th streets.
“I had a little girl jump out of the car and ask me for my autograph,” Harman said Wednesday, taking a short break to chat. “I thought that was pretty funny. It’s never happened before.”
Harman is a freelance artist of 27 years who has painted several traffic utility boxes throughout the cities of Capitola and Santa Cruz.
The staff update lists cost estimates ranging between $650 and $750 for each pilot box depending on the size of the unit. The city is using funds remaining in the graffiti paint contractor account for 2011, according to the report.
Prior to the pilot, the project was approved by the Arts and Cultural Commission and the Public Art Committee in Gilroy.
