Colorful, transportation-themed block print collages designed by youth now decorate 10 utility boxes on Ocean Avenue and side streets.
The project, dubbed the 2024 Ocean Avenue Utility Box Murals, was spearheaded by the local arts nonprofit Youth Art Exchange, better known as YAX. Its theme: Ocean Avenue's transit bustle.
YAX Executive Director Rafaella Falchi-Macias told The Light that the 13 students worked on the project after school over a semester at the nonprofit's San Jose Avenue location, which is outfitted with a print shop and fashion design studio. YAX faculty artist Leonard Reidelbach led the project, which was installed in early January.
"Giving youth artists the power and the opportunity to contribute to the city that they live in by doing public art projects like this has greater impacts than just beautifying a neighborhood," Falchi-Macias said. "They have greater, lifelong impacts on their lives."
YAX was aided in the project by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Ocean Avenue Association and the Office of District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar.
The project was funded through Melgar's Community Grants Initiative in 2021. But through a funding allocation issue, it was delayed.
Utility Box Locations
- Ocean at Victoria
- Ashton at Ocean
- Ocean at Faxon
- Capital at Ocean
- Ocean at Brighton
- Ocean at Lee
- Ocean at Geneva & Frida Kahlo
- Frida Kahlo at City College Terminal
- Frida Kahlo at Cloud Circle
- Ocean at Howth
"By bringing together artists, youth, and the Ocean Avenue community, this project has truly exemplified the best in a Participatory Budgeting project," Melgar said in a statement. "I look forward to their unveiling in the coming weeks and their bringing more life, vibrancy, and pride to the Ocean Avenue corridor for years to come."
The project updates utility boxes decorated in 2018 for a project called “Ocean Bloom.” Similar to that project, the boxes have been coated with anti-graffiti and weatherproofing by Clean Slate Group.
