This was an exciting first for Maclay School and the Visual Arts Team. We received and email from a parent / now friend - Betsy. She explained this whole process to us all and wanted to get our students involved. We thought, sure...let's do this! We had no idea that contact / communication would lead to such a school wide / community success. I have copied and pasted below how this all played out...
Check out this link for the scoop:
10th Art of the Box Unveiling
On April 13, the 10th Art of the Box was celebrated at the Maclay
School, where student artist Olivia Schroeder attends. This is the 10th
Art of the Box KCCI facilitated. This box is the first featuring a
student’s artwork, and the first box sponsored by a family. Thank you
Dudley Family for making this public art piece possible.
Art of the Box is
a program that showcases and promotes the work of local artists while
covering traffic control boxes that are often defaced with graffiti.
The program deters vandalism, provides economic opportunity and
marketing for local artists by showcasing their talents, and beautifies
neighborhoods as the boxes broaden access to, and appreciation of,
public art.
Leon County Commissioner Rick Minor, Mayor John Dailey, 2021 KCCI
Community Catalysts, KCCI supporters, Maclay faculty, and Olivia’s
parents came out to celebrate the 10th Art of the Box.
Our featured artist and her parents.
Well, hey there Mayor!
Above...new friend, Betsy. She is doing what she does best.
The unveiling was also timely as it came weeks after Leon County Government and KCCI announced the Call for Artists
to cover utility boxes at popular libraries and county parks.
Interested artists are invited to submit original, inspired and/or
uplifting artwork by May 15 at https://forms.gle/6CuJ8CebPXqLoEYt9.
Lots of great PR for the Arts and the Community.
Would not have been possible without these folks!Huge THANK YOU!
Peep, my student Caroline. She is Betsy's daughter. Apparently, she is like my daughter and likes to bake. I just recently shared friendship bread starter with her. Art touches us in many ways. It could be culinary, in the visual arts classroom or just making our community more beautiful! The real reason Caroline was attending is since this was a one school event...she was getting the scoop for a story for our Middle School News Broadcast.
Olivia is a keeper in our Visual Arts Department. I can't wait to see what she produces over the next few years. She and I share a common love of Dr. Martens...just saying!
Thank you to the community partners and business leaders who worked with KCCI’s 2021 Community Catalyst Class to make this 10th Art of the Box possible: The Dudley Family, City of Tallahassee, FASTSIGNS, and Maclay School.
I must admit the first time I turned and saw this electrical box covered...my heart was full. I pass it every day on the way to work.
Appreciate the support from all areas of our vast community here in Tallahassee!
Yes, they took the design and made a coloring post card for our Maclay Family. I will post on that next. We had the help of the Advancement Team on this project.
They also had mask created with Olivia's design. Just how cool are those!
From Maclay School's Facebook Page:
#Repost @kccitallahassee with @get_repost
・・・
As the 10th Art of the Box was unveiled, it was a celebration of it being the 1st box to showcase student artwork and the 1st box sponsored by a family.
Thank you Suzanne and Chris Dudley for setting a precedent by sponsoring the box at the intersection of Maclay & Meridian Road. KCCI to engaged students from nearby @maclayschool in this aspect. Congratulations to student Olivia Schroeder for “Acorns to Oaks” being showcased.
Stay tuned for more to come from the 2021 KCCI Community Catalyst class as this is just the beginning. The team is planning ways to grow the Art of the Box concept and generate more major art throughout Leon County.
If you missed it, two weeks ago the KCCI Catalyst team and @leoncounty announced a partnership with Leon County Government to showcase outdoor art at Libraries and popular parks. The Call for Artists can be found on KCCI's web site.
And the KCCI Bike Park tCatalyst team is having an art-filled week as well. Stay tuned to see what bicycling resource pops up at a local Leon County School. @leoncountyschools
Thanks Tallahassee, Fla. (WTXL) for the coverage! See link below.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
(WTXL) — The city of Tallahassee and KCCI is taking public
infrastructure and turning it into art. Gray utility boxes that you see
along the road will now showcase local talent. Leon County has invested
$20,000 into the "Art of the Box" campaign to fund more utility boxes
across the city.
Today the 10th utility box was unveiled, for the first time featuring art from a local student.
Maclay
School sophomore, Olivia Schroeder, told ABC27 "it adds color to the
community and the area and I think it's just a fun way to express
yourself, I wanted to incorporate our oak trees because that's a big
part of our campus so I went through and researched different types of
oak trees and put all those kinds of leaves in and I took a picture of
where it was going to be and I pulled the colors from there and put it
into the art."
The "Art of the Box" is intended to promote
engagement and diversity in the community. A call for submissions is
underway for the new artfully inspired boxes coming soon. To submit your
artwork click here.
Stay tuned for more information on this post! Glad you stopped by to take a "looksy". If you have any questions, please drop a comment or email me directly.
