2023

CVPA students bring captivating color to New Bedford

Illustration and fashion design students bring life to electrical boxes

Illustration student Chloe Canterbury paints an electrical box alongside Route 18

Illustration major Chloe Canterbury paints an electrical box alongside Route 18 in New Bedford.

Following last year's success, the New Bedford Creative Consortium and city of New Bedford commissioned the College of Visual & Performing Arts' Foundations 120: 2D Form and Surface class (a college requirement for all CVPA majors) to paint two electrical boxes in the city, bringing color and personality to an otherwise plain object.

For the second year in a row, Foundations 120 coordinator Lara Henderson and her colleagues, teaching faculty professors Vessna Scheff, Sarah Danowitz, and Nick Carter, assigned all Foundations students to design renderings for how they'd paint the boxes, with two winners being selected to follow through on their designs.

After a review from College of Visual & Performing Arts faculty, Chloe Canterbury (illustration), and Emily Moniz (fashion design) were selected as the winners.

"The two boxes are at very different environments in the city, so part of the challenge was coming up with a design that fit the space," said Henderson. "The first box is located at the corner of Union and Pleasant street, a high-traffic intersection in the heart of downtown New Bedford.

Electrical box on the corner of Union and Pleasant Street in New Bedford painted by fashion design major Emily Moniz.

"The second box is alongside Route 18. With cars passing by around 35 miles per hour, that space will get a much faster glance, and therefore needed brighter colors. Chloe's designs are eye-popping, easy to digest, and encompass the city's historic dedication to activism."

Electrical box alongside Route 18 in New Bedford painted by illustration major Chloe Canterbury.

As part of the assignment, students surveyed New Bedford residents to see what they wanted represented in their community. Students found a desire to see the city's history of support for abolitionism, the LGBTQ+ community, and activism depicted.

Last year's projects, included in the gallery below, were so well-received that the New Bedford Creative Consortium requested Henderson's course continue to design two electrical boxes each fall semester for years to come.

View concept, before, and after images, as well as last year's winners' designs in the gallery below: