Sure you can adopt a puppy or a kitten but did you know you can now Adopt A Box in downtown Huntington?

Help turn out city’s small army of gray electrical boxes into works of art.

The Huntington Mayor’s Council for the Arts is seeking businesses, property owners and individuals to “adopt a box” in an effort to bring a new artistic element to downtown Huntington.

The new public art project involves placing a vinyl wrap designed by an artist around electrical utility boxes in the downtown to bring to life an otherwise ordinary object.

Signs of the time

One electric box, located at the intersection of 4th Avenue and 9th Street, has already been wrapped as part of a pilot project for the new public art installation. Paris Signs designed and installed the wrap on the box. Phil Nelson and Jim Weiler of Capital Venture Corp., which developed The Market, have committed to wrapping a second electrical box on 8th Street between 3rd and 4th avenues.

3 to go

The Mayor’s Council for the Arts is now seeking donations for the three remaining electrical boxes in the downtown. The Huntington Art Fund has been established by the Foundation for the Tri-State Community to accept donations. The cost to wrap one electrical box, which includes payment to an artist as well as the development and installation of the vinyl wrap, is $2,500.

If there are enough donors interested in “adopting a box” for $2,500, the Mayor’s Council for the Arts will invite artists to submit designs that will be juried and then serve as a set group of designs from which donors can choose.

For more information about the project, contact Margaret Mary Layne, chairwoman of the Mayor’s Council for the Arts, at [email protected] or 304-633-5990. Donations to the Huntington Art Fund of the Foundation for the Tri-State Community can be made by visiting www.tristatefoundation.org or calling the Foundation at 606-324-3888.