Art

Youth Artists Sought for North Charleston Traffic Signal Box Beautification Program

Published

2 years ago

February 21, 2023

Press Release

The City of North Charleston is engaging in a public beautification effort that will use digital art by North Charleston youth artists to cover traffic signal boxes throughout the city. Middle and high school artists working in digital media are invited to submit their original design(s) for this opportunity. Ten designs will be selected in this first round of the program to cover a traffic signal box in each of the City’s 10 Council districts. The selected designs will be reproduced on a vinyl wrap that will cover the traffic signal boxes.

Each year, the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department receives hundreds of entries of student artwork for the North Charleston Arts Fest Tri-County Youth Art Competition & Exhibition, which calls for artwork made with traditional materials. In recent years, the department has noted an increased interest from local art educators who are looking for opportunities to showcase their students’ digital artwork. “When we were asked to establish this traffic signal box beautification program, we felt it was the perfect opportunity to showcase the digital artwork of our North Charleston students,” explains Maria Martin, Arts Outreach Coordinator with the City’s Cultural Arts Department. “The printing process provides a real-life application of how digital art can be used in public spaces. The student artwork will brighten corners around the city for years to come and can be used as a portfolio piece or added to their artist CV, just as any digital artist or illustrator would document the publication of their work.”

This artist call is open to students in grades 6-12 that reside in North Charleston. Artists may submit up to three designs. There is no fee to enter. Entries should be original, full-color, high-resolution images created with a digital art app or software, such as Procreate, Illustrator, Photoshop, Corel Painter, Clip Studio Paint, etc. Work created using AI-generators like DALL-E2 is not considered original to the artist and is ineligible. There is no theme for this competition and all styles of work will be considered. Selected artists will be awarded a $100 prize, and the artists and their designs will be recognized in press releases, as well as on the City of North Charleston’s website and social media accounts. To enter, visit www.NorthCharleston.org/TrafficBoxArt. Deadline for entries is 12:00pm on Friday, March 31.

For more information about the City of North Charleston Traffic Signal Box Beautification Program, visit www.NorthCharleston.org/TrafficBoxArt, or contact the Cultural Arts Department at 843-740-5854 or culturalarts@northcharleston.org. To learn more about other programs and artist opportunities offered by the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department, visit the Arts & Culture section of northcharleston.org.