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If you ask Linda Teeter what her job is as developer of the 56-block Joplin Arts District, she’ll tell you that it’s promotion of the downtown area through art and other activities that will attract tourism and put people on its sidewalks.

On behalf of the arts district, she’s been doing that through distinctive signage, restoration of Spiva Park at Fourth and Main streets, promotion of public murals, and establishment of a concert series spotlighting local musicians.

I’ve learned that the wheels are always turning in Teeter’s mind as she considers ways to make the downtown area even more dynamic.

I have a suggestion for something that’s missing, a component of public art that has been pursued elsewhere, but not yet in Joplin. We need to brighten our street intersections by turning those drab metal traffic light boxes into works of art. It could be a new direction to consider for our public art collection.

Across America cities of all sizes, including Columbia, Missouri, have been turning traffic boxes into art canvases for beautification and promotion of neighborhoods. They’ve been found to help reduce graffiti by giving street artists a more acceptable way to express their art.

I know there is support of traffic box art by local artists, including those practicing the graffiti street style.

In an interview a couple of years ago in the alternative publication The Joplin Toad, a group of street artists discussed their desires to paint traffic boxes. They hadn’t pursued the idea because they were unsure of where to start with getting city approval.

That had already been explored about 10 years ago by The Tank, a public art group responsible for several small murals in the downtown district. It approached the city about painting a small number of boxes, but the idea was nixed. The powers that be at City Hall contended that painted boxes would distract drivers. Really? What about the public murals in major traffic areas? I haven’t heard of any accidents while people were stealing a glance while driving by a mural.

Times have changed since then, and perhaps our present city fathers would have more open minds about it. Wouldn’t it be better for the city to sanction it than to leave it to art marauders, striking at night with artwork that may be offensive or questionable? If the Joplin Artists District were to oversee such a project with city endorsement, it could ensure high quality, creative workmanship in designs that are acceptable in public areas.

The art designs that have been gracing traffic boxes across the country are of every type — historic images, landscapes, cityscapes, abstracts, florals, cartoons, music-related motifs and just about anything else that an artist can conceive. Some art is painted directly onto the boxes. With others, the images are embedded into vinyl wraps, allowing designs to include photographs, printmaking images, drawings, mosaics or other mediums.

Programs to paint the boxes vary from city to city. In some of them, the city handles the process of advertising for design proposals, commissioning the artists and paying for it. In others, downtown or neighborhood associations, art councils or nonprofit groups oversee the projects, handling the commissioning process and funding them through grants, business sponsorships or donations. In all instances, the cities are responsible for maintenance of the boxes once they’re painted.

The city of Columbia’s traffic box program began in 2007 and is administered by the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs. Each year, there’s a call for artists to submit proposals for painting boxes with one or two more boxes added each year. Now, there are 19 of them in the downtown district.

An online Traffic Signal Box Art Participation Guide for the Arts Council of Indianapolis estimates costs at $800 to $2,000 per box, depending upon the commission amount that is paid to the artists. The costs vary because the arts council allows all types of organizations — from nonprofits to neighborhood associations and other citizen groups — to formulate their own programs, giving them the freedom to set the artist commission amounts and how much they’ll cover in supply costs.

For Joplin, it seems like a natural project for the arts district, perhaps even in collaboration with Connect2Culture, our community arts organization. The creatively designed boxes could help demarcate the arts district, which runs from B Street south to 12th Street and from Wall Avenue east to Pennsylvania Avenue. If the boxes were met with public enthusiasm, perhaps they could be expanded into other areas of town.

This is an element of public art that is missing in our community, especially considering our growing reputation for the arts.

It’s another form of public art that speaks of a desire to promote art, to put some spark into the streetscape. and to promote our downtown district. It may not be as dynamic as large-scale public art, but it’s a less costly alternative, while still contributing to our art persona. Perhaps it’s time to consider it.

Marta Churchwell is an arts columnist for The Joplin Globe. 

Marta is an arts columnist for The Joplin Globe.

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