By Laurie O’Neill — [email protected]
Calling all artists!
The Concord Cultural Council is soliciting designs for the painting of a signal switchbox on Thoreau Street. The subject can be “historical, contemporary, literary, or revelatory,” says council member Ed Bernard, who is piloting the project with Leda Zimmerman.
The selected artist will receive up to a $1,000 stipend.
Transforming a mundane switchbox into a “thing of beauty” is the “first tangible project” of the newly combined Local Cultural Council and the Concord Center Cultural District, says Tooey Rogers, chair of the CCC.
The CCC aims to transform two Thoreau Street boxes into works of art. They are the only ones in the downtown Concord area. The first to be painted is near Starbucks; the second, at Main and Thoreau, will be addressed later, pending Historic Districts Commission approval.
Photo courtesy of Mimi Graney
Rogers points out that there are other electrical boxes around town, but only switchboxes, which power and control traffic lights, are safe to paint.
The West Concord Junction Cultural District Committee has already accomplished the painting of switchboxes there, though the one at the intersection of Baker Avenue and Route 62, Rogers says, was “recently totaled by an errant car.”
The council wants to create “a memorable and meaningful marker at a gateway to Concord Center,” says Bernard. It will choose from the submissions “based on what we think is best for the space and in keeping with the character of the town.”
For more details, visit tinyurl.com/ProjectPaintBox. Submissions are due April 30.
