Project: Traffic Control Box Art

Honorarium: $400

Deadline: January 27, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time

Call Type: Public Art

Entry fee: $0.00

Eligibility: Regional

State: TX

Project Summary

The City of San Marcos invites artists to apply for a public art project to create a “Mini Mural” via their original art to be placed on traffic control boxes in San Marcos. The selected artists’ designs will be digitized and printed on a vinyl wrap and installed on the boxes.

The Traffic Control Box Art program is designed to enhance the city by adding works of art to the streetscape on surfaces that are often targeted by graffiti. Artwork on traffic signal boxes functions as a form of communication to a moving audience with the goal of creating a safe, inclusive, and interesting urban environment.

Project Theme

Artists are invited to create their designs according to their own selected theme.

Project Details and Goals

Successful proposals will foster community pride and convey the sense of the San Marcos Community. Artists should understand that the finished works will be on functioning equipment that will need repair or replacing at some point in the future. We anticipate the average life of the Traffic Box Art to be 5 years. The City of San Marcos reserves the right to replace the artwork at any time and for any reason.

Much like the City’s successful Mural Art Project, the goal of the project is to continue intentionally growing free public art displays in San Marcos while helping to decrease the instances of graffiti on these surfaces by making them artful objects that contribute significantly to the vitality and attractiveness of the streetscape.

The project should meet the following objectives:

·         Include all visible sides of the traffic signal box

·         Be thoughtful about having large open areas on their artwork giving vandals a space to deface the work 

Timeline

·         Submission deadline: January 27, 2025, 11:59pm

·         Design reviews: February 26, 2025

·         Selection notification: March 5, 2025

Application Requirements

To be considered, applicant must submit the following:

·         Typed statement briefly explaining your design (one page maximum)

**Artists may submit more than one design proposal. A statement for each design must be submitted.

·         Submissions may be new or existing artwork.

·         Digital submissions only:

o   Selected designs must be available in a full-size resolution of at least 150 dpi (in CMYK format) for production purposes. This means final digital files will need to be scanned or designed as 36” x 15” at 600dpi (or 21600 x 9000 pixels)

o   For submission and review purposes, smaller file size sizes may be entered. Art must be submitted at 1800 x 750 pixels in size (6”x 2.5” at 300dpi)

o   Most boxes have a smaller box attached to one side. Art fitting to those must be submitted at 350 x 350 pixels (2” x 2” at 300dpi)

o   Please keep in mind that the print company may need to crop your image to create a wrap that fits the box.

o   The files can be submitted in a PDF, .jpg or .tiff format. Each file must be a separate attachment—no links to Google documents or other cloud-based services, please

o   Naming convention for the files should be: ArtistName.TrafficBox.1,2,3, etc.

Eligibility Criteria

This call is open to regional artists.