Covered by Documenter:
Danean Putman (read her notes here)
Call for designs goes out March 29; selected artists to be paid $250
Twenty nondescript but functional Akron traffic signal boxes will soon get a colorful upgrade.
The Akron Public Art Commission recently announced it will invite Akronites to submit designs beginning March 29.
Documenter Danean Putman was on hand for the virtual meeting March 13, as well as for the commission’s February meeting where it approved this project.
The boxes will receive a vinyl wrap featuring the selected designs. Two will be placed in each of Akron’s 10 wards. Commission members still need to select the location of the 20 boxes from among the several hundred scattered across Akron.
Mike Meyer, a planner with the Akron Planning Department, presented an interactive map to the commission during its February meeting showing the locations of the traffic signal boxes throughout the city and the 10 intersections with the highest traffic counts near signal boxes.
More information about who is eligible to submit designs, how to submit and the deadline for submissions will be available on the commission’s website and in a City of Akron press release that will be shared closer to when submissions open.
Commissioners laid out a May 1 deadline for submissions and a May 30 deadline for selections. They hoped to have work done during the summer, but that deadline will depend on the company selected for the installations.
The overall budget for this project is $35,000, with $5,000 set aside to pay stipends to selected Akron artists.
Commission considers applying for up to $40,000 grant to explore race and democracy
City of Akron Public Art Liaison Summer Hall presented a grant opportunity to the commissioners, who asked for more information and time to consider the idea.
The inaugural grant from Race Forward will award 12 to 15 communities $25,000 to $40,000 for ideas that align with its “Building the Bigger We” theme.
Race Forward is a national group that began more than 40 years ago and focuses on dismantling “structural racism by building collective community power and transforming institutions,” according to its website.
The “Bigger We” is a vision about “who we can be when we recognize that we are diverse — across race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, language, and more — and that we are interconnected,” according to the group’s website.
Race Forward’s new “Cultural Week of Action on Race and Democracy” is scheduled for Sept. 27 to Oct. 5. The national group’s stated aim is to connect people through “arts, culture and creativity.”
It was unclear at the March 13 meeting if the commission would be able to apply by the March 29 deadline. The application asks for an itemized budget, partners and a project outline.
One of the questions asks how the project will advance racial justice in Akron. Another asks about creative outcomes of the project, including murals, billboards and other public art.
Other upcoming public art events:
- Commission Member Katie Beck said the North Hill Community Development Corporation is putting coloring books in the North Hill Library to collect visual ideas that could become art for a mural at the Howard Street Heritage Courtyard. This space is an “initiative focused on celebrating the diverse heritage of North Hill and the history of African Americans on Howard Street.”
- Commission Member Jessica Travis, in collaboration with Elizabeth’s Book Shop and Writing Centre, will be at Compass in Middlebury on March 26 from 5-7 p.m. for an evening of audible books and a craft project.
