Chula Vista Community Arts Group in collaboration with the city of Chula Vista's redevelopment department, artist Roberto Salas and CHIP painted several utility boxes in downtown Chula Vista.
I learned about this project at a CAC meeting presentation made by Dana from CHIP. I thought his idea of promoting a healthy lifestyle by creating art in public places would encourage people to go outdoors.
CVCAG volunteers attended a workshop with the collaborators and began to work on the designs of the boxes. Below is a picture with the group and a design made by Roberto Salas.
The workshop consisted of projecting and tracing designs that we could paint on the utility boxes. Everyone picked a designs and began to trace them on the wall. We had one of the volunteers trace it by accident on a closet door...oops. The South Bay Community Service Representative was very nice and stated it was a cool design and we should just go ahead and finish drawing it.
It was a very funny mistake!!!
At the following workshop held at a park rec center we learned that someone else had the same situation and so we now have two random drawings on closets in downtown Chula Vista.
The next meeting we gathered to paint. We started by cleaning the boxes which were dirty and had graffiti. After each volunteer took turns painting blotches of color on the boxes. As we worked on the boxes we got a lot of people honking and giving us thumbs up. Everyone that walked or drove by was happy to see more public art in Chula Vista. Below are the 2 boxes that CVCAG worked on. One is near the trolley station on H st and the other next to the Taco Bell on E St.
We did not get to attend the last day of painting because we were at the North Park Festival but Dana sent me the pictures of the finished utility boxes. I wanted to thank Dana and Carla for their hard work on this project and for promoting public art in Chula Vista.
I have been by a couple of times to see the boxes and as of my last visit there is no damage or graffiti on them. Dana stated in his presentation that when the community is involved in these type of projects they feel a connection with the community space and are more likely to respect it and not damage it.
Below are links to videos Dana from CHIP made regarding his work and this project.
The utility box effort is featured in the video documentary of the project (PV-HEAL).
http://youtu.be/VB95Vqfx0oA
Preventing Violence - Healthy Eating Active Living Part 2
http://youtu.be/babUzvkMpm8
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