Traffic Control box redecorated as public art. Photo Contributed
Traffic Control boxes are metal containers. They help make sure the traffic lights run smoothly, but they’ve never been accused of being beautiful. That changed in 2015 when the City of Alexandria Office of the Arts created a public art program where 12 boxes would be wrapped in art. The program returned and spread across the city in early 2016. The Traffic Control Box art is one of the most visible public art projects from the Office of the Arts, but Diane Ruggiero, deputy director for the Office of the Arts, has higher sights.
On Aug. 22, the Office of the Arts hosted a Public Art Annual Workplan Meeting to look through potential sites for public art projects. Every year, the group meets to lay out a slate or projects for the next two fiscal years. Ruggiero said the main question facing the group is whether to continue focusing on smaller street art or push for bigger, more involved projects.
“We’re looking at things like traffic boxes, but do we want to do more or look at other projects?” said Ruggiero. “We like having those inexpensive, quick turnaround types of projects.”
But Ruggiero said the Public Art program is already taking on bigger projects such as the redesign of the Simpson Park Playground near the Mount Vernon Recreation Center and the city’s work reconfiguring Lake Cook. Both projects, Simpson Park Playground in particular, have public art built into the redesign rather than set aside as an afterthought.
“The artist has been a part of the design team since the beginning of the project … where usually the design team puts together a site and there’s a space where it says ‘public art here,’” said Ruggiero. “The way that we’re doing this project is not traditionally how it’s done. This has been fun for everybody. We’re excited about this concept.”
At Lake Cook, city staff is planning on reconfiguring the four-acre lake near Eisenhower Avenue to help with the city’s stormwater runoff.
“They’re building capacity there, but also making it more user friendly,” said Ruggiero. “The plans are to put in a path with some boardwalk to make use of the lake. The lake is stocked with fish by the state, so this will provide extra fishing opportunities. Similar to what we’re doing with Simpson Park … we’re working to integrate public art into the design for the site.”
Ruggiero said the group is continuing to look through the city’s Capital Improvement Plan for projects, like Simpson Park and Lake Cook, that could include public art. But the city does not have a traditional public art program Ruggiero says other cities have, so the Office of the Arts has to lobby for allocated funding in every year’s budget.
Ruggiero says one of the next big upcoming public art projects is a collaboration with Gadsby’s Tavern. The project, called Time and Place, focuses on art that implements historic source material without becoming a historic marker.
“We’re working with the staff at Gadsby’s to gather materials to do a site project based on the history of the tavern,” said Ruggiero. “The focus is on stories lesser told than what’s usual at Gadsby’s. It’s a fairly innovative type program to be doing.”
According to Ruggiero, artists are meeting with the staff and putting together proposals to be presented in September.
Michele Longo, curator of education at Gadsby’s Tavern, says the staff there is excited to see the new proposals for public art.
“One of our big goals is to generate dialogue about stories that might get missed and help attract new audiences to historic sites; people who don’t think of themselves as history as much as art people,” said Longo. “We’re excited to work with [the artists]. It’s very much a team process.”
Longo said artists have shown a particular interest in the complicated and labor intensive process of bringing ice to the tavern and the mostly undocumented lives of the slaves who lived and worked at the tavern.
Ruggiero said as the group looks around for the next public art project, most of the focus is on the Four Mile Run Conservatory in Arlandria and the Burke Branch Library. Ruggiero says both are areas where the city currently has no public art on display. And yet, Ruggiero says both are popular stops for city residents or those just passing through the area.
On Sept. 6, at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall’s Sister Cities Room, the group will meet again to decide which projects to propose to City Council in the fall.