Newly Painted Utility Boxes Celebrate the Semiquincentennial
Lexington has three newly painted utility boxes for 2024. Their coordinator, public artist Laurie Bogdon, points out that, in honor of our Semiquincentennial, each one highlights a different aspect of the time period around the Revolutionary War in Lexington. These creatively designed utility boxes illustrate art’s power to beautify our neighborhoods.
The next time you head down Waltham Street and turn toward Jonas Clarke Middle School on Brookside Ave., you will see a utility box commemorating birds that are now extinct. Their background is Lexington conservation land. The artist, Jake Ginga, who masks his identity under the pseudonym “Maker Jake,” is a visual art educator and a Massachusetts-based artist.
Local artist Emily Passman painted several well known historic sites on her utility box at the corner of Hastings Park on Massachusetts Avenue. She believes “Daily sketching is a great way to heighten one’s ability to se, and important to incorporate into one’s painting process.” Emily’s work is in New England galleries and private collections internationally.
In Lexington Center is a box painted by Mike Ewing, a contemporary artist and Revolutionary War buff. His work represents two men who contributed to the 1775 battle: Eli Burdoo, a Lexington native who served the Lexington Militia, was a free man and Prince Estabrook was an enslaved man who stood with his neighbors against the British Army on April 19, 1775. Ewing says, “I believe everyone can create, and every home should include original art. The thing that gives art value is the feeling it creates inside you when you see it – that feeling can be priceless – every home should include that feeling.”
Lexington’s Council for the Arts sponsored this project. Each fall the Lexington Council for the Arts (LCA) selects programs in the arts, humanities, or sciences that demonstrate a public benefit for the Lexington community, meets various advertised criteria, and benefits the broadest possible range of Lexington citizens for funding. We look for those new, exciting programs – ones that haven’t been done before and ones that build community. In the upcoming year, we will be emphasizing the Lex250 celebration.