(Union County, NJ) -- Plainfield has become the fourth municipality to participate in Union County’s first Art Outside The Box public art project - a new countywide creative placemaking project created to support local visual artists by offering a nontraditional exhibition opportunity that broadens and diversifies public exposure to art murals.

Visual artists are invited to submit original artwork for consideration to cover traffic control boxes at four different locations in Plainfield.

“The Freeholder Board is pleased to include Plainfield in this year’s collaborative creative placemaking pilot project,” said Freeholder Chairman Mohamed S. Jalloh. “By integrating visual art with public spaces, Art Outside The Box seeks to provide our communities with opportunities that celebrate creativity, enhance community identity, and encourage cultural tourism.”

This call for entries is open to all 2D visual artists (painters, photographers, printmakers, graphic and computer/digital artists) residing in or working in Union County. Artists are invited to submit up to four different designs for project consideration. The deadline to submit artwork for consideration at each of the four Plainfield locations is August 24, 2015.

The theme for this submission of Art Outside The Box entries is diversity. Artists should submit work that is uplifting, colorful, and appropriate for people of all ages.  There is no fee required to participate.

Offered as part of Freeholder Chairman Mohamed S. Jalloh’s Building A Community of the Arts initiative, a total of four original artworks will be selected to cover traffic control boxes in Plainfield, NJ. Each artwork will be reproduced on a special vinyl adhesive film and professionally applied to the exterior of the pre-selected traffic control boxes. 

Funded by the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the Art Outside The Box project will provide a $200 honorarium for each artist whose work is selected.  Details about the project, including entry form, traffic control box locations, reference samples, and artist agreement are available online at www.ucnj.org/artoutsidethebox.

Deadline to submit artwork for consideration at each of the four Plainfield locations is August 24, 2015.

Entries will be juried and selected for the program based on artistic excellence, technical merit, the ability to complement the setting and how well it translates into large-scale viewing.

For further details about how to participate, please call the Union County Department of Cultural Heritage at (908) 558-2550 or visit our website at:  ucnj.org/artoutsidethebox.