Allied Arts Council expands traffic box art program
By Chris Fortune
A drive or stroll down Frederick Avenue is going to get more colorful.
The Allied Arts Council reached an agreement with the St. Joseph City Council to expand its traffic signal box artwork program. It adds a third art district to allow traffic signal boxes to be painted along Frederick Avenue from 10th Street to Noyes Boulevard.
The need for traffic boxes has diminished over the years without as many traffic lights around, but the artwork program is something Executive Director Teresa Fankhauser said is valuable because of the character it adds to neighborhoods.
“We asked the city if we could expand it up to Frederick (Avenue) because we specifically wanted to be able to work with the Fairleigh Neighborhood Association to create a traffic box piece of art at Noyes and Frederick,” she said.
Sue Wagner, president of the Fairleigh Place Neighborhood Association, said she sees the painting project as an opportunity to beautify as well as highlight the unique character of the area where she lives.
“We’d like to have something that would represent our neighborhood because with it being a (neighborhood built in the)1920s, you know, something that would kind of get a person in the mood of that,” she said.
The original purpose of the traffic box art program was to generate more foot traffic Downtown to view pieces of art.
“This was prior to the Sculpture Walk, so this was our first public art venture, if you will,” Fankhauser said. “We’ve seen it successfully achieved in other cities. Columbia has a vibrant traffic box community, so we saw what they were doing and thought we’d like to do something similar.”
The city reached the initial agreement for the Allied Arts Council to paint traffic boxes in October 2012. It was renewed for a second traffic box art district in February 2018 before being approved again at the March 18 city council meeting.
“Our city council and our city staff are so supportive of the arts programs that we do — the public art that really helps people connect with the outside world and art,” Fankhauser said.
