The City of Plant City and MAKE Plant City are pleased to present a collaborative community public art project. “We are accepting 2D art submissions to be professionally wrapped on electric boxes located in and around Historic Downtown Plant City,” said Arley Smude of MAKE Plant City. “Selected artists will have their work displayed on a designated electric box.”
MAKE Plant City is a non-profit organization that aims to inspire and connect people for a more creative and dynamic community. “It started in 2017 with monthly events where we interviewed local makers and artists,” Smude said. “A Disney Imagineer, Mandy at The Kandy Shoppe, folk artist Ruby Williams, to name a few, have become a part of MAKE. Over the years, the organization started doing community projects, such as Henry’s Hidden Train Hunt, the Trash Can-vas project of painting dumpsters, and the Electric Box Art project.”
MAKE, and the City of Plant City are looking to the community for artists to submit their ideas for images that will appear on the electric boxes in downtown Plant City. “In 2019, the city asked if we’d like to partner to wrap electric boxes in downtown with art,” Smude said. “It was the Manager of Traffic Operations, Fred Baxter’s idea. We put out a call to artists and got incredible submissions. Eight boxes were wrapped with the art of mostly local artists, and the community has enjoyed it for the last six plus years. The city is installing updated electric boxes, so they saw it as an opportunity to continue the project with a new call to artists.”
All artists of all levels are encouraged to apply. “Submissions that feature the uniqueness of our downtown, Plant City, and its history, and Florida are encouraged, but artists should submit whatever design they think would be best for our downtown,” Smude said. “One box near the festival grounds will be strawberry-themed, and one box will be firefighter-themed. Artists should keep in mind that the art will wrap around all four sides of the box and onto an auxiliary box, so there’s a lot of room for creativity with the dimensions. This isn’t just a normal painting you’d hang in your living room.”
The artwork can be a continuous landscape image that covers all four sides of the main cabinet box. A repeating pattern that is applied to all sides, or any configuration that your creativity determines is appropriate for the box format. Selected artwork will be professionally printed and installed; artists do not paint the boxes. Submissions may NOT include text, numbers, symbols, political content, religious content, profanity, nudity, or obscenities.
Artists may submit more than one entry; a separate form is required for each submission
Requirements are subject to change based on production needs. There is no monetary compensation for this project. Deadline for submission is Sunday, Feb. 15, at 11:59 p.m. “The art from the first project set a really high bar,” Smude said. “We’re excited about this next chapter of the project and hope it will add a little extra joy to people’s day.”
If you would like to learn more about MAKE Plant City, you can visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MAKEPlantCity. If you are a local artist and are interested in submitting an idea for the Electric Box Art Project, you can visit MAKE’s submission link at www.bit.ly/plantcityart or email Fred Baxter at Fbaxter@plantcitygov.com.
