Painting Traffic Signal Boxes

Queensland Urban Ecology manages Artforce on behalf of Brisbane City Council. Artforce paints traffic signal boxes (owned and operated by Brisbane City Council) across Brisbane. There are over 1000 TSBs on the streets (there is one at every set of traffic lights in Brisbane) and we have painted over 900 so far. Brisbane is growing fast and there are always new TSBs to paint. We organise the painting of around 150 TSBs per year.

We also manage the painting of Main Roads traffic signal boxes. Contact us about the suburb you would like to paint in and we allocate you a TSB to design artwork for.

Painting a traffic signal box is easy and very fun. You can do it on your own or with a group of people. You can paint a TSB if you are a professional artist or if you have never painted anything at all before. There are no age restrictions. We supply all the equipment you need including paints and safety equipment. You supply a design, have it assessed and go from there.

PAINTING TRAFFIC SIGNAL BOXES

- AN URBAN ECOLOGY: LEGAL GRAFFITI PATTERNS IN SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND

'Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource.' Richard Florida (2002).

Painting traffic signal boxes provides a diverse display of creativity and culture and helps Brisbane to define itself as an entrepreneurial city.

While public art opportunities in crowded cities are reasonably rare and graffiti is only allowed to remain on out of the way fixtures such as derelict building sites or railway corridors, painting traffic signal boxes offers high profile canvases right across the city and throughout the suburbs where public art may never appear.

Brisbane City Council's traffic signal box painting project - Artforce, is one of Brisbane’s most recognised and highest profile public art projects. It is one of Australia’s longest running and largest community access, graffiti reduction projects. Artforce has been running for seven years, has involved 600 Brisbane artists to date and painted and repainted original artwork on over 1000 traffic signal controller housings (there is one at every set of traffic lights in Brisbane). Additional information about the project can be found at www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/artforce.

Painting traffic signal boxes provides significant anti graffiti outcomes while simultaneously providing residents and visitors a sense of place and a sense of meaning. While advertising is frequent in Brisbane, as in every other city, painted TSBs provide a counter culture and an alternative to consumer driven images. Painted TSBs offer the same promise of individuality as graffiti but filter out images that may reduce feelings of community pride.

Artforce provides positive outcomes in the following areas:

• public art
• graffiti reduction
• place-making
• personal orientation in crowded urban spaces
• enhancement and calming of transport corridors
• community engagement with localities
• supports community cohesion and community pride
• provides both emerging and professional artists of all ages access to a high profile and public 'canvas'