Wilmington street art sparks pride, healthy habits

Esteban Parra | The News Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Eye sores to art West Side Grows Together, a revitalization group, is trying to beautify Wilmington's Fourth Street area by taking commonplace electrical boxes and turning them into art with a message of healthier living.

A few drab utility boxes on Wilmington's west side received colorful makeovers Thursday that aim to spark interest in healthy habits and bring a bit of beauty to some rough parts of town.

The Fourth Street Mini Murals project, directed by West Side Grows Together, is sending local artists to show off some of their talents as they spray-paint positive messages on city-owned metal box canvases.

"I love hip-hop, comic books and graffiti," said Kerrea "Food-Stamp" Meekins, one of the project's artists who was at Fourth and Union streets painting a girl eating an apple. "When I do my artwork, I try and incorporate that into one.

"This right here is about to be my whole comic book aspect of my artwork. It's just cool."

The project, funded by the Nemours Foundation, will decorate four electric boxes along Fourth Street under the organization's "This is Our NeighborGood" – an initiative aimed at creating safe, healthy and vibrant communities in Wilmington.

Organizers are hopeful they can decorate more boxes as people become inspired to fund the project, said Garrison Davis, a community organizer for West Side Grows Together, a coalition of neighborhood residents and businesses.

"I want to cover the whole west side," Davis said. "This is a fantastic idea, and everybody should have the opportunity to improve their neighborhood.

"Not only that, but it's an opportunity for businesses to support their local community by sponsoring boxes."

Davis said anyone – business owners, individuals, artists – could get involved in the project. He said it costs about $600 to decorate each box, with the cost of the paints and the artists' stipend.

"The goal isn't to make money off of this," he said. "The goal is to change the mindset of our community."

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Davis, whose been working on the project since December, said they received permission from Wilmington to decorate the boxes. So far, Mayor Mike Purzycki said he's happy with what the group has done.

"I saw some samples of the proposed artwork more than a month ago and recognized this immediately as an inspiring way to promote art and add an attractive feature to an important neighborhood and travel corridor," Purzycki said in a statement. "I appreciate the efforts of West Side Grows and the Nemours Foundation to make this happen and for giving us another reason to take pride in where we live."

Sarah Lester, director of Cornerstone West CDC, which oversees West Side Grows Together, said art can be a powerful tool that can work in several ways, including beautifying a community.

"I know that's a huge jump, but brightening up our communities, developing more pride in these spaces and increasing activity out on the corridor … contribute to a healthier neighborhood and potentially the reduction on crime," Lester said.

Cities where utility box murals have sprouted over the years have seen positive results, including a decrease in the boxes being vandalized.

"We've only had one box that's been tagged," said Kellie Shay Hinze, interim executive director of Leucadia 101 Main Street Association, an Encinitas, California, group that has been helping decorate utility boxes in that area since about 2014.

"That was really disappointing for us, but it was really cool to see how the community came forward and tried to put the details together," she said, adding they found the funds to have the artist return and create a new image.

What they have learned is that the murals help in several ways, Hinze said. Local artists get paid to display their artwork, and small businesses appreciate how the boxes become public art near their shops. Also, people visiting the areas tend to photograph the artwork and share the images on social media.

On Thursday, Fred Drew waited for his DART bus near Fourth and Lincoln streets and watched as JaQuanne LeRoy Daniels worked on his piece nearby.

"It's better than that graffiti they put on there," Drew said.

Drew said the artwork has the potential to add value to the community.

"It's more personal to the area," he said. "I do like that."

Daniels said the city is moving in the right direction by recognizing how creativity can be an outlet, especially by allowing artists to express their visions on utility boxes that would otherwise just collect graffiti or posters.

"Everything has potential for a creator to kind of put their mark on it," he said.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.