The Program
The Utility Box Public Art Program brings art into everyday public spaces by reimagining utility boxes with vibrant artworks by local artists. These installations brighten Calgary’s streets and reflect the unique cultures, stories, and identities found across our neighbourhoods.
Through funding and collaboration, the program supports artists and community partners in developing site-specific designs that contribute to a more vibrant and welcoming city. More than 200 artworks have been created since the program began in 2010.
After transitioning from The City of Calgary to Calgary Arts Development in 2021, the program continues to offer meaningful opportunities for local artists and to build community pride through public art.
2025 Artists
The participating artists are listed below, along with their artworks and the locations. Some artworks are not finished and will be added as they are completed.
Photos by Chelsea Yang Smith.
Title: Everyday Streetscape
Organization: Crescent Heights Village BIA
Location: 16 Ave. & Centre St. NW (1701 Centre St. NW)
These prints layer fun colours, spotted patterns, a familiar local street grid, and everyday citizens that otherwise might not be reflected in public art.
Title: Beneath the Dancing Sky
Organization: Evergreen Community Association
Location: Fish Creek Blvd./Everridge Dr. SE
The piece depicts the aurora above Fish Creek Provincial Park in autumn. There are many local nocturnal animals represented in the piece: a great horned owl, a red fox, a deer and her fawn. The side facing the street depicts the most vibrant part of the aurora (with the bright golden grasses and plants on the bottom). The colours are vibrant and complimentary shades of blues, purples, greens, and golden yellows. used An iridescent finish on the aurora, the stars, moon and water reflections provide a shimmery effect. The scene is wrapped around the utility box and provides a window into Fish Creek Park during the amazing solar storms we’ve been fortunate to witness.
Title: Latinoamérica Speaks! / Latinoamérica Habla!
Organization: SpanicArts
Location: 7 Ave. and 1 St. SW
This is an illustrated, cartoony poster that highlights the unique cultures and characteristics of each country in Latin America. My intention is to create a vibrant illustrated map where people can discover and connect with the richness of this wonderful and diverse land I call home. Through this piece, I want to share our music, traditional dishes, achievements, and a glimpse into our stories. With this artwork, I hope to create a cultural art space in Calgary where the Hispanic community can come together and celebrate a piece of their homeland, while also being educational.
Title: A Celebration of Plants — Rooted in Community
Organization: West Hillhurst Community Association
Locations: Four utility boxes throughout West Hillhurst
19 St. & Kensington Rd. NW
21 St. & Kensington Rd. NW
Kensington Rd. & Crowchild Tr. NW (near Lions Village seniors residence)
5 Ave. & Crowchild Tr. NW (NW corner)
The West Hillhurst Utility Box Project is an ongoing effort to realize visual medicine in public spaces. Growing out of the Rooted in Community Project from 2022 – 2023, the Utility Box Project transformed five boxes between 2024 – 2025 into colourful artworks, celebrating five native plant species. These works remind us of our connection to the plant beings that share our world, celebrating them as equal members of our community.
Title: The Beginning Eternal
Organization: Erin Woods Community Association
Location: Erin Woods Dr. & 52 St. SE (NE corner)
It was a great opportunity to participate in this program as an Indigenous artist. To be able to connect with the community — all the honking and waves I got made my heart melt. A lot of people stopped, and we chatted about art and the program. So many people said, “We need this type of positivity in our neighbourhood.” They all said the bright colours made them feel good about themselves. I am so very grateful and proud to be selected as one of the artists.
Title: Where City and Nature Meet
Organization: Shawnee Evergreen Community Association
Location: James McKevitt Rd. & Evergreen St. SW
The artwork Where City and Nature Meet represent two prominent animals found within the community area. On one larger side facing the road, a beaver peaks its head through water, and on the other larger side, an image of deer peaks through tall grass. The tall grass wraps around all four edges of the box to create a unified image.
Title: Sundown Over YYC
Organization: Evergreen Community Association
Location: 162 Ave. & 24 St. SE
The mural represents prominent animals found within the communities surrounding parks, including blue heron and deer. The vibrant sky represents the sunsets that are often enjoyed in Calgary, with the foothills and mountain range in the distance. The painting wraps around the entire box, seamlessly blending the work from all angles.
Title: Celebrate, Nurture and Collaborate.
Organization: Ramsay Community Association
Locations:
25 Ave. & Spiller Rd. SE
Macdonald Ave. & 8 St. SE
21 Ave. & 11 St. SE
Ramsay is a beautifully diverse community that also enjoys many visitors throughout the week. Restaurants, schools, places of worship, boutiques and parks all welcome swells of residents and regulars. To celebrate the “in-between” of Ramsay, this suite of murals will act as a portal for the neighbourhood. Are you coming home from a long day, or popping by for a morning coffee at the dog park? Is this a place you come to learn, rest, or try to make sense of it all?
Each of the utility boxes shares a different story of what Ramsay means to its community:
• Celebrate: Celestial neighbours enjoy their favourite performer while collaborating on an art piece.
• Nurture: A myriad of star sprites are ushered off together by their cosmic guardians, while reciprocating the care.
• Collaborate: interdimensional beings work together to tidy up the stars and create a new one in the process.
Title: The Bee City
Organization: Crescent Heights Village BIA
Location: 16 Ave. & 3 St. NW (near 301 16 Ave. NW)
As Calgary embraces its designation as a Bee City, this mural celebrates the vital role pollinators play in sustaining ecosystems and food security. Through vibrant, earthy colours and imagery, I aim to honour both nature and community, highlighting Calgary’s native insects and plants to foster awareness and appreciation for the local environment. Delicate pink wild roses — the official flower of Alberta — bloom across the design, symbolizing the province’s natural heritage. These native blossoms thrive in Calgary’s environment and provide rich nectar and pollen for bees, supporting pollinators throughout the season. Interwoven among the roses are native bees, depicted in motion as they pollinate and interact with their surroundings. Beyond their ecological role, bees embody interconnectedness, collaboration, and community well-being.
Title: The Bee City
Organization: Marda Loop Communities Association
Location: Joliet Avenue/Fire Station No. 5 & 14 St. SW
The Bee City celebrates Calgary’s designation as a Bee City and the essential role that pollinators play in sustaining ecosystems and food security. Using vibrant, earthy colours and layered imagery, the illustration honours both nature and community. At the centre are blanket flowers, a native species that thrives in Calgary’s environment. Their long bloom time, drought tolerance and natural resistance to pests make them ecologically sustainable, while their nectar and pollen provide consistent nutrition for bees from spring through fall. Interwoven among these flowers are bees, shown actively pollinating and interacting with their surroundings. Beyond their ecological role, the bees symbolize interconnectedness, collaboration, and community well-being. The background reflects the utility box’s surroundings, such as the nearby library and playground, featuring figures reading, resting and enjoying the outdoors. This highlights the harmony between learning, leisure, and environmental stewardship, emphasizing public spaces as sites for connection and reflection.
Hand-painted with high-quality outdoor acrylics, the visible brushstrokes and layered textures give the artwork a tactile quality, inviting viewers to pause, connect and reflect. The Bee City transforms a functional utility box into a vibrant, living part of the neighbourhood, an artwork that celebrates the beauty and importance of the natural world around us.
Title: Family of Foxes on Utility Boxes
Organization: Crescent Heights Village BIA
Location: 14 Ave. & Edmonton Tr. NE (SW corner)
Momma Fox, Poppa Fox, Jr. Fox and Baby Fox are on an adventure through the forest of birch trees. This artwork focuses on themes of family, winter, and play, using themes of local flora and fauna. The viewer can see dynamic personalities in each of the foxes, Baby Fox bounding through the snow, Jr. racing to catch up, Momma Fox looking back to check on the children, and Poppa Fox obliviously pressing on. Foxes are one of the most widespread and beloved animals in North America. This friendly winter scene amongst a forest of birch trees touches on the childhood whimsy of playing outside with the family, a familiar and enjoyably nostalgic Canadian memory of family and the prairies.
Title: Everything will be okay
Organization: SpanicArts
Location: 6 Ave. and 1 St. SW
This collaborative piece by Sumit Munjal and Subliminal Rabbit explores the concept of community care, collective healing and unity. Rooted in South Asian henna- like motifs and dreamlike silhouettes, this design holds space for queer joy, colour, and comfort in the everyday. It serves as both reassurance and ritual, a quiet public promise: you’re held, and everything will be okay.
Title: Wild
Organization: Beltline BIA
Location: 12 Ave. & 8 St. SW
This piece blends traditional and contemporary elements to reflect movement, strength and connection to the land. The horse symbolizes spirit and motion; prairie plants and a wild rose represent resilience and growth. The star motif offers guidance and continuity. Together, they mark presence, history and place.
Title: Tree of Life | Creation
Organization: International Avenue Arts and Culture Community (IAACC)
Locations:
8 Ave. & 52 St. SE (by Jack James High School)
Radcliffe Dr. & 36 St. SE (by Father Lacombe High School)
Sylvia Arthur is a visual artist who creates figurative drawings, etchings and paintings that capture glimpses of everyday life. She utilizes expressive mark making and unusual viewpoints to delicately define the scene she portrays. Sylvia’s art is often a visual narrative that describes the character and experiences of her subjects. Her art engages the viewer with familiar themes, allowing them to recognize similar personal experiences or create their own interpretation.
Title: Write your own story
Organization: Crescent Heights Village BIA
Location: 10 Ave. & Edmonton Tr. NE (NE corner)
Write your own story is a mural designed to unfold like a narrative as viewers move around the utility box. A central character holding a calligraphy pen anchors the composition, surrounded by layers of expressive calligraphy and the main text, ‘write your own story,’, interwoven throughout a mixed -media abstract composition. The design was created with the viewers movement in mind, inviting curiosity and discovery from every angle. A playful detail ties the piece together: the calligraphy was written by hand using the same pen the character holds. This subtle connection serves as an analogy for the self-authorship, reminding us that each of us holds the pen to write the unique story of our own lives.
New: Marda Loop Curated Pilot Project
To explore new ways of supporting artists and communities, Calgary Arts Development launched a pilot project in Marda Loop in 2025 in partnership with the local Business Improvement Area. Curator Stacey Watson collaborated with artist Tayler Schenkeveld to produce artworks for 13 utility boxes, grounding the process in neighbourhood research and engagement. The pilot, completed in fall 2025, will inform how the Utility Box Program evolves in 2026.
Curator Stacey Watson
Marda Loop Utility Box Project 2025
Fibre: Cultural Connectivity sits on 13 sites, situated in the blocks slightly north and south of 33rd Avenue SW, in the community of Marda Loop. The curatorial view of this iteration of the Calgary Arts Development Utility Box Program considers the function and significance of the boxes themselves. The underlying theme highlights a link between the fibrous material that carries electrical signals across city distances and the textile media used by artists and craftspeople to express ideas and create useful objects. The artworks emphasize the hidden web of power and telecom systems beneath the street — and how they surface in these utility boxes. The work of repairing and controlling networks at these boxes mirrors how textile artists shape and guide fibres.
Artist Tayler Schenkeveld’s practice uses simplified line-work in paint to depict images of meaningful woven garments. The traditional Métis sash, la Ceinture Fléchée, stands out as a cultural motif in her work and is part of her own history. Her handling of the subject matter highlights how linear elements interact to form a whole. For Fibre: Cultural Connectivity Tayler utilizes her visual language to transform what is woven, knitted, and stitched with flexible fibres into a monochromatic treatment in white lines on black backgrounds.
Community members provided significant input for this project , with engagement sessions creating space for an important dialogue. Individuals and businesses in the neighbourhood with a meaningful connection to fibre arts, craft technique and the business of garment care and sales are the entry point to get to know Marda Loop. Tayler’s treatment of the utility boxes becomes an invitation to stories of neighbourhood activity and culture, accessible at all times, in all weather, to all viewers.
Artist Tayler Schenkeveld
Series Title: Fibre: Cultural Connectivity
Title: Woven Basket
Location: 34 Ave. & 20 St. SW (near Original Joe’s, near parking lot)
This piece was inspired by the stitch work seen in the woven baskets at Alberta Craft Gallery. I was struck by its intricacy, precision, and rhythm.
Title: Clothing Boutique/Consignment Fashion
Location: 35 Ave. & 18 St. SW
Marda Loop is home to several boutique and consignment clothing stores. I was inspired by the thoughtful displays and the emphasis on sustainable fashion. In this piece, I aimed to capture various garments arranged on racks and shelves, highlighting how beauty and creativity can be found in everyday objects.
Title: Yarn
Location: 33 Ave. and 19 St. SW
This piece highlights Marda Loop as the home of Little Bow Fibre Company, a local and sustainable yarn store. The two yarn balls are joined by a single strand, symbolizing the threads of connection and community woven through this neighbourhood.
Title: Rug Hooking
Location: 34 Ave. & 20 St. SW (near Original Joe’s)
During our site visit to the Chinook Guild of Fibre Arts, I was introduced to the intricate art of rug hooking. I was especially drawn to the distinctive rectangular patterning it creates, and this piece is my attempt to reflect and reimagine that unique texture.
Title: Dog Fashion and Function
Location: 33 Ave. & 22 St. SW (east side of street)
As a devoted dog lover, I was struck by how dog-friendly Marda Loop is — with its central pet store, patios, and shops catering to four-legged friends. In this piece, I sought to capture the textures and fibres of dog fashion and functional items, celebrating the playful and practical elements that make this community so welcoming to pets.
Title: Embroidery
Location: 34 Ave. & 22 St. SW
This piece was inspired by the lines and textures found in embroidery. I was particularly moved by the embroidered works I encountered at the Alberta Craft Gallery, which featured nature scenes, as well as a piece depicting human figures that was later shared with me by a member of the Chinook Guild of Fibre Arts who was unable to attend our site visit.
Title: Cross-Stitch
Location: 33 Ave. & 20 St. SW (Blush Lane side)
This piece was inspired by the cross-stitch patterns I encountered at the Chinook Guild of Fibre Arts. Having spent time cross-stitching as a young teen, the process felt deeply reminiscent of those earlier years I devoted to stitching.
Title: Coin Laundry
Location: 33 Ave. & 20 St. SW (strip mall side)
In connecting with the community, I learned about the long-standing presence of Pinky’s Coin Laundry in Marda Loop. Though it is no longer in operation, this piece pays tribute to its history and significance by transforming the utility box into the image of a washing machine — a visual reminder of the everyday places that once brought people together.
Title: Métis Beadwork
Location: 33 Ave. & Crowchild Tr. SW
This piece is inspired by traditional Metis floral beadwork. The Metis people emerged through the meeting of cultures — Indigenous and settler European. The seven central flowers symbolize the Seven Generations teaching, reminding us that the choices we make today will carry forward to nurture and sustain those who come seven generations after us.
Title: Ceinture Fléchée/Finger Weaving
Location: 33 Ave. & 22 St. SW (east side of street)
The ceinture fléchée is a powerful cultural symbol of the Metis. Traditionally finger-woven, its arrow-patterned sashes blend both French and Indigenous techniques. This piece represents the ceinture fléchée wrapping around and embracing the community, expressing the idea that all peoples and cultures have a place of belonging in this space.
Title: Fashion Design
Location: 33 Ave. & and 22 St. SW (west side of street)
Housed in C-Space, Riyoko is a fashion design studio that also offers sewing and pattern-making classes. During our visit to Kristi Woo’s inspiring studio, I was captivated by the intricate patterns and elegant mannequins, which sparked my own creative ideas.
Title: Patchwork
Location: 34 Ave. & 19 St. SW
While walking through Marda Loop, I came across a beautiful patchwork sign hanging outside a Building. Instead of using standard, durable materials, the makers chose to carefully stitch the words together, transforming the sign into a gesture of care and creativity. The patchwork not only conveyed the message but also reflected the thoughtfulness and intention behind it. I hope to translate this into the patchwork piece I created.
Title: Marda Loop Festivals and Events
Location: 35 Ave. & 18 St. SW
This piece celebrates the vibrant festivals and events that bring Marda Loop to life. Gatherings like Marda Gras and the farmers’ market unite the community in lively, creative, and joyful ways, reflecting the spirit and energy of the neighbourhood.