Fountain Valley to allow hand-painted installations for Art on a Box program
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On the southwest corner of the intersection at Brookhurst Street and Edinger Avenue in Fountain Valley, a utility box is decorated on all four sides, the titular “Drive-In Hospital” facing the pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
Depicted in the piece is the former Fountain Valley Drive-In, a marquee displaying the movies that played on opening night in 1967 — “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Tammy and the Millionaire.”
The drive-in was demolished in 1984, and the evolution of what the property became is represented in a reflecting pool, where the artwork displays the reverse image of MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center.
Resident artist Katy Wright became the first to put her design on a city-owned utility box through the Art on a Box program in 2021. She remains the only one to have done so.
The program is run through the Fountain Valley Community Foundation, which sponsored the initial project. The other sides illustrate advertising for the theater and crows swooping down on the grounds of the abandoned drive-in, including one perched on top of a speaker.
Wright described her discovery of the public art program as a “fluke,” but she has become somewhat of a champion for it.
“I have gotten up at several meetings, and I have talked about that I’m the inaugural artist, and I want to see more art out there by more people, more variety,” Wright said in an interview on Wednesday. “The sky’s the limit as far as what could be on those boxes. A quilter could take a photograph of their quilt, and that would be a gorgeous thing on a box.
“I, myself, have relied on public transportation for a good portion of my life, and I would appreciate something like that, and I know everybody else would, too. I want people who don’t think they’re artists to go ahead and think, ‘Well, the worst case, maybe they don’t take it, and they don’t use it.’ I can’t tell you what it feels like when you didn’t think you were an artist, and you can drive by your work on a street corner.”
Artwork installation has been limited to vinyl wraps up until now, but the City Council unanimously approved an amendment to allow for hand painting. While the Fountain Valley Community Foundation runs the program, the item came to the council because it concerned city property.
“The City Council on the whole, we were concerned about the potential of graffiti, and I think that’s why we went with the wrap,” Councilwoman Kim Constantine said in revisiting the approval of the program in September 2020. “I am in support of allowing artists to do either the painted art or the vinyl wrap.”
The project was launched five years ago as a beautification project to promote local artists and history, and to instill a sense of community engagement, civic pride and cultural heritage. In July 2020, the city’s recreation and community services department collaborated with public works officials to identify a dozen city-owned utility boxes to serve as a canvas for art.
Nine of the specified boxes are located around the perimeter of Mile Square Regional Park, with the other three stationed along Slater Avenue between Brookhurst Street and Mt. Herrmann Street.
Priority is given to artists who live and work in Fountain Valley, but it is also open to those who support or have an affiliation with the city.
“When placed on utility cabinets or other public property, the artwork constitutes city speech,” Community Services Director Rob Frizzelle said. “The city does not intend to create any type of forum for private speech, and as such, the city speech, the artwork content, must be G-rated.”
Other guidelines require the artwork to be non-discriminatory and generally positive in nature. The artwork may not include content that is hateful or obscene, contains depictions of illegal activities, or that references racial, religious or sexual harassment.
The amendment is geared toward making the program more accessible by lowering the cost of installation and maintenance.
City staff estimated the cost of installation for a vinyl-wrapped box fall between $1,700 and $2,300, while the expected cost for a hand-painted box (including supplies) is somewhere between $500 and $1,500. Both methods of installation would require an anti-graffiti coating for protection of the artwork.
Projects through the program do not use city funds. The foundation is expected to work with selected artists to find sponsors for the installation.
Costa Mesa and Dana Point restrict their utility box public art programs to vinyl wraps only, Frizzelle said, while Garden Grove, Long Beach and San Clemente allowed for the boxes to be painted.
“While there are some times when a vinyl wrap application is warranted, the truth is that the two preapproved pieces that I have done — “Hobble Nation” and “Time Twister” would have already been done if I could have painted them,” Wright told the council. “At this point, it’s expensive.
“There is an expectation that the artist will help seek funding and sponsorship, and I will note that an artist is an artist. It’s not our forte to go out and do fundraising. Not that we aren’t willing. It’s just not an easy thing to do. We’re not good at it, and that’s partly, in my opinion, why the program seems to be languishing.”
The Fountain Valley Community Foundation reviews the artwork for approval. Constantine also urged the foundation to do more to promote the program to local artists and the community.
“I would support to have the options for the art,” Mayor Ted Bui said. “Yes, this is a mission that the foundation should be engaged more. The foundation, the only thing they should look for is the art itself. Is it appropriate? Is it subjective? That’s the role they should be playing. As long as the art is appropriate to the community, let the artists express themselves.”
A couple of the panels from the “Drive-In Hospital” project wound up in a show at the Huntington Beach Art Museum. If Wright’s name doesn’t ring a bell there, residents might remember that she ran for City Council last November.
“I wanted the experience of doing it,” Wright said. “I gained so much life experience. I came out the winner. Even though I came in No. 4, I had 5,300 votes from people that didn’t know me, and they liked what I was saying, and that meant a lot to me. The experience meant a lot to me.”
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