A Traverse City Light & Power (TCL&P) effort to beautify electric utility boxes around the city has led to a partnership with Interlochen Center for the Arts students to paint three transformers in the Warehouse District – one of several projects helping turn the downtown neighborhood into a public art destination.

TCL&P gave students permission to paint three utility boxes this spring outside The Workshop Brewing Company with their own submitted artistic designs (pictured). Students spent nearly a year planning the project, including working on their designs and interviewing adjacent property owners, whose approval of the concept art was required. Owner Pete Kirkwood of The Workshop Brewing Company donated funds to pay for the paint for the project.

“It’s awesome for these kids, because how exciting is it that they can put their art in a public space and people can come see the work they’re doing?” Kirkwood says. “It’s not like the transformers are some kind of lovely amenity. Obviously we need the electricity, but they’re just sitting there and not adding any aesthetic quality to the streetscape.”

The project is the second initiative approved by TCL&P to add visual appeal to the 1,000-plus drab electricity units scattered throughout the region. Last year, the utility gave permission to developer Mike Wills to “wrap” three transformers outside of his Uptown development on Pine Street to mimic the surrounding brick buildings. The utility’s board also gave the green light to allowing other artists or property owners to pitch similar projects for transformers throughout the city. Interested artists can contact TCL&P at 231-932-4545 to fill out an application and pitch a project; artists are responsible for covering their own costs, obtaining approval from TCL&P and surrounding property owners on the project design, and maintaining upkeep on the artwork.

While the Warehouse District is only the second project to come out of the program, TCL&P Executive Director Tim Arends is hopeful more artists will come forward to transform additional units in the city.

“They’re necessary infrastructure, they have to be there, but we recognize that they are ugly,” Arends says. “What we’ve also learned from other utilities is that when they’ve allowed art on their transformers, graffiti artists will typically not deface other people’s art. Some of these (units) are very large, and they simply present a canvas for abuse. Putting art on them, decorating them with something interesting, has been proven to prevent that abuse.”

For Interlochen students, the project offered a real-world opportunity to not only display their art work publicly but practice community engagement skills required to become successful working artists, says Megan Hildebrandt, a visual arts instructor at Interlochen.

“The idea is to get them thinking outside of themselves, thinking about their community and being good citizens, and thinking about how artists can help make the world better,” she says. In addition to interviewing business owners about their desires for design concepts – akin to accommodating clients’ needs as commissioned artists – the students fielded questions from passing members of the public as they painted the boxes across two sessions during high-traffic times. “It was a way to help the students grow and see that their classroom and their studio is actually everywhere,” Hildebrandt says.

Both Kirkwood and Hildebrandt hope the transformers can become a rotating installation, with new classes of students repainting the boxes with new designs every year or two. Hildebrandt also has eight Interlochen campers this summer attending a new Citizen Artistry class – centered on promoting public presence and interaction in art – who will focus on painting another three transformers on the other side of the Warehouse District alley. Hildebrandt says the project is helping Interlochen – which she says can sometimes operate as a “bubble” – better connect to the Traverse City community, and hopes both her and other area high school students can tackle more projects throughout the city. “I like the idea of it being something that’s tackled by a lot of different people in the community,” she says.

For Kirkwood, the project is just one of many public art projects adding visual interest and vibrancy to the Warehouse District. In addition to sponsoring the transformer paintings, Kirkwood also commissioned Traverse City artist Darin Knupp to paint a mural on a building across Garland Street from his business. One of two downtown “street pianos” – colorfully decorated and placed in public by Life and Whim to be played by any passerby – is now located on Garland Street next to the former InsideOut Building (the other is on the corner of Park and Front streets). As part of the upcoming Up North Pride Week, a special wishing tree is also being installed at the corner of Hall and Garland streets with the Traverse City Arts Commission; the year-round public art installation will feature clay leaves inscribed with wishes from members of the community. And plans for the new Breakwater development on the former Fifth Third Bank property call for installing a prominent piece of public art on the property.

Kirkwood credits the former InsideOut Gallery for setting the tone for the Warehouse District to become a more experimental, arts-friendly neighborhood downtown. “They were a pioneer, and with the unfortunate closing of InsideOut Gallery, maybe there’s a reverberating sense that arts belongs in our neighborhood and this is an unconscious effort by the community to fill that gap,” Kirkwood says. “Having public art here – especially art created by students – keeps with the character and personality we want to embody in our neighborhood. It makes it a fun place where you go to get out of the ordinary.”