Chico City Council unanimously voted to approve a program by the Chico Arts Commission for a series of murals by local artists to be implemented on downtown utility boxes.

Aptly named, the utility box art program was formed at a CAC meeting on July 10, according to the Aug. 20 City Council briefing. The commission’s goals for the program are to spotlight local artists by providing a public display of their work, to beautify the streets and to help curb graffiti. 

For now, 14 city-owned utility boxes are proposed for the program, all in the downtown area. Some other boxes in town are owned and operated by PG&E, rather than the city of Chico, and are not currently included in the program. 

The art commission is not requesting city funding and states in the brief that it’s confident the program will receive sponsorships from local businesses and property owners. There will be some oversight of the art installations by public works staff. 

The briefing cites utility boxes as frequent targets of vandalism and city-sanctioned artwork helps prevent it; ideally people won’t paint over an existing piece of public art. 

According to the CAC there is evidence to support the idea of art preventing graffiti, which is also corroborated by a study titled “The Mural as Graffiti Deterrence” by Penelope Craw,

Louis Lelan Jr., Michelle Bussell, Simon Munday, Karen Walsh, published in 2006. Researchers in the study found that the same section of wall saw a decrease in graffiti after a mural was painted. 

When choosing locations for the program the commission will give priority to boxes with high rates of graffiti and those in areas with less existing public art. All artwork must be approved by the commission through a request for proposal and all future selected artists must reside in Butte County.

Per the briefing, “Evaluation of proposals would include the need for artistic excellence, appropriateness of scale, form, content and design.”

It’s important to note that the artwork will not be painted directly by artists, instead designed by artists and then printed on vinyl wraps to be applied to the box. City Clerk Debbie Presson said during the council meeting that the commission’s research suggests the vinyl should last 10 years and graffiti can be cleaned off of the material. 

The first of these utility box murals was in Fort Collins, Colorado in 2004, a city which now boasts more than 400. After 20 years programs such as  the one in Fort Collins, and now Chico, have been widely adopted in big cities and small towns across the United States and abroad. 

To read the article in Spanish, go here.

Callum Standish can be reached at [email protected]