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Call for Proposals: City of Toronto “Outside the Box” Project 2021
Deadline: Friday, April 16 2021, at 11:59 pm. EST   King Street West & Shaw Street – Julia Prajza...

Deadline: Friday, April 16 2021, at 11:59 pm. EST

 

King Street West & Shaw Street – Julia Prajza
Photographer – Jocelyn Reynolds

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The City of Toronto invites local area artists to submit proposals to create works of art on City traffic signal boxes throughout Toronto. There are over 2,200 traffic signal boxes located across Toronto at signalized intersections. These boxes are often covered with posters and are a prime target for graffiti vandalism.

The Outside the Box public art initiative helps to bring diverse and interesting public art to neighbourhoods, reduces the impact of graffiti vandalism and postering, contributes to the vitality and attractiveness of the streetscape, helps to beautify City infrastructure and streets, and supports local and emerging artists.

Artwork on traffic signal boxes functions as a form of communication to a passer-by with the goal to create a vibrant, inclusive and interesting urban environment. Successful proposals will be innovative in design, foster community pride, counteract graffiti vandalism and contribute to a sense of identity for residents and businesses.

The Outside the Box program is an initiative of the City of Toronto’s Transportation Services Division. Since it was launched in 2013, over 500 boxes have been animated by local artists.

ARTIST FEE

Selected artists will receive a fee of $800 for each completed traffic signal box and licencing rights that will enable the City to reproduce the final design for promotional purposes.

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Leslie Street & Dexter Boulevard – Yasaman Mehrsa
Photographer – Jocelyn Reynolds

APPLICATION & DESIGN CRITERIA

  • Artist applicants must reside in the City of Toronto.
  • Artist applicants cannot be City of Toronto employees.
  • Use the template provided on the website to submit your design concept. Designs must cover all visible sides of the traffic signal box, unless where specified by the StART project team or specified on the list of box locations.
  • When designing the artwork, artists are encouraged to think of the context of the city as a whole.
  • Designs must not contain:
    ◦  any representations of traffic lights, signs or signals
    ◦  advertisement or promotion for any business, product or viewpoint
    ◦  vulgar, profane, offensive, or insensitive images or writing
    ◦  any breach of intellectual property, trademarks, brands, images of illegal activity or involve the attachment of any object(s) to the box
  • Consideration should be given to the fact that the finished artwork(s) will be in the public domain and therefore may be vandalized. Although the City will protect the artwork with a vandal resistant clear coat, it cannot guarantee that vandalized traffic signal boxes will be repaired and the artwork restored to its original state. Further, artists should understand that the finished works will be on functioning equipment that will need repair or replacing at some point in time. As such, The City cannot guarantee how long each traffic signal box will be in use. Artists must accept the risk that their artwork may be damaged, altered or removed at any time after completion.
  • All designs will be subject to review and approval by the City of Toronto.
  • Artist signature and website cannot occupy more than ¼ of the base unit.

TRAFFIC SIGNAL BOX SIZE AND CONFIGURATION

Width: 850 mm
Height: 2,006 mm
Depth: 482 mm

Please note in very few cases the traffic signal box may be slightly shorter than the above height. The design template with dimensions can be found at www.toronto.ca/streetart/outsidethebox

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Bamburgh Circle & Wintermute Boulevard – Victor (Si Yuan) Wei
Photographer – Jocelyn Reynolds

LOCATION OF TRAFFIC SIGNAL BOXES

For 2021, Outside the Box aims to have 50 traffic signal boxes hand-painted by local artists. The majority of the boxes will be located in North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke.

PAINTING WEEKS

Artists must specify in their application which of the 3 designated weeks they will be available to paint.

  • Week 1 (June 21 – 27, 2021)
  • Week 2 (June 28 – July 4, 2021)
  • Week 3 (July 5 – 11, 2021)

In some cases, depending on box location, some flexibility may be required and an artist may be requested to paint their box on another date if necessary.

Artists may submit no more than one design proposals (template) along with a statement for each design. No artist will be selected for more than 1 traffic signal box.

HOW TO APPLY

The online application can be found HERE

For more information or general questions please contact Michael Cavanaugh, Program Coordinator at trafficboxmurals@gmail.com or visit StART’s website at www.toronto.ca/streetart