San Luis Obispo community beautifies campus one utility box at a time
San Luis Obispo community members are leaving their artistic mark by turning utility boxes on campus into works of art.
Experience industry management senior Grace Bishop painted her box that reads “You Belong Here” at the Grand entrance of campus about a year ago. Her painted box features Bishop’s Peak as an ode to her last name.
“It’s a mantra to myself,” she said. “An affirmation that I do have a place here and so does everyone else. And I want everyone to have what I didn’t.”
She and many others are the artists behind this Cal Poly project that started three years ago to help beautify campus.
“When I first came to Cal Poly I was always looking for signs,” Bishop said. She had self-doubt coming into Cal Poly and felt lost. When she realized the number of places that were named “Bishop” and discovered that “Obispo” also translated to her last name, she felt that she had found her place.
“I saw Bishops Peak and I thought if this isn’t a sign I don’t know what is,” she said.
Program coordinator Cindy Pilg said students, faculty and community members can submit an application to paint their utility box alone or with a group.
According to Pilg, the art jury chooses artists based on their artistic proficiency and innovation, the scale of their design and the contribution that the art would have to campus.
Each box is repainted after four years and there are about 100 boxes designated all around campus for this project.
Each artist is given a $250 stipend for supplies, with over 30 boxes completed.
Pilg said the project team is now looking to the next steps for the project which is an interactive map to show where each painted utility box is located on campus.
“You can start at one end of the campus and follow the map and go to see all of the different boxes that have been painted,” Pilg said. “In addition, by clicking on those red boxes it will pull up the artist’s information, a picture of the art box, and any other information that we have.”
The project is expected to be completed by June 2024.
