The Keep League City Beautiful citizens’ committee is also involved in the project.

In 2021, the first examples of outdoor artwork from the project arrived in the city, with the decoration of six traffic boxes, as well as the fountain control box at League Park, 512 Second St. Another art addition was a large-scale mural on the side of a caboose, also in League Park.

Art comes in two formats. The first is where the paint is applied directly to the can. In the second, a decal is printed to adhere to the surface of the box.

“If you have professional artists painting is great because they get things done in a day or two,” Osborne said. “But when you’re working with students, you really don’t want students painting the side of the road in traffic and they have to be micro-managed. So we learned early on that body wraps (are a better option) for students.

The artwork has a decidedly local touch.

“The overall theme of our first group of artists was to celebrate the natural strengths of League City. That’s why there are (topics like) birds and reptiles and a floral landscape, ”Osborne said.

Local artists are also at the forefront of the creative blitz.

Adam Socie, a League City resident and native of Pasadena, painted a traffic box on the corner of Maple Leaf Drive and FM 518, as well as a mural in League Park depicting a train conductor handing over a ticket.

“The conductor was designed to look like Walter Hall,” Osborne said. “Even though he was not a politician, he was instrumental in incorporating League City and he was also instrumental in merging League City and the surrounding school districts into one school district.

“He also took this train every day to Rice University to graduate.”

This mural has an interactive feature, in that people can pose in front of it and act as if they are taking a ticket from Hall.

Thelma Brown, also a League City resident, has a room on the corner of Texas 3 and Walker Street, across from the Helen Hall Library, 100 W. Walker, which features seagulls hovering over a sunset.

“Thelma is retired and she moved here about seven years ago,” Osborne said. “She loves to paint and she paints every day. She applied to be one of the mural artists and she was selected and she is thrilled (to be a part of the program).

Debbi Starr of Kemah painted a box at the intersection of League City Parkway and Isla Vista Drive, which Osborne says has “a sailboat motif,” while Magnolia’s Joy Matheson has a room at League City Parkway and Hobbs Road.

“It’s kind of a reptile motif,” Osborne said. “There is an alligator, a turtle and a dragonfly. It’s nice. We love his work.

Matheson also painted the control boxes for the League Park fountain which features cattle.

To top it off, Clear Lake’s Anat Ronan talents are displayed on a pair of boxes in the Four Corners area where FM 270, 518, and 2094 meet.

She has two on FM 270 in the Four Corners area. One on the access road and one at FM 518 that she will be painting over the next two weeks.

Funding for the artistic initiative comes from several sources.

Park opening fees, which are collected from developers during the construction of subdivisions, represent $ 150,000. Another $ 50,000 came from the hotel’s occupancy tax, while League City’s traffic department injected $ 20,000.

Things are really going to be buzzing in 2022.

“We’ve got a lot going on right now, especially with the Hometown Heroes Parks and Trails with the 5K Loop and the Dog Park; so we are going to make sculptures at the dog park. We have other things planned for a 5K mural, ”Osborne said.

The downtown area will also receive a solid dose of public art.

“When we did a survey of our residents on where they would like to see art, there was a strong response that they would like to see art in the Historic District; So that’s where we mainly focus. In the New Year, we’ll be painting six traffic boxes along Main Street in the Historic District.

“We were waiting (the Texas Department of Transportation) because TxDOT is going to re-asphalt (Main Street) and then bury the traffic lanes and do a whole bunch of other work. So we have to wait on TxDOT as these are their traffic boxes.

“As soon as they order (the new) boxes, we’ll put them in a warehouse and the artists will paint them in a controlled environment and then set them up.”

Schoolchildren in League City will also be involved in the public art initiative, Osborne said.

“All (the) schools design envelopes and then we will look at them and decide where they will be,” she said. “Ideally, the packaging will go close to the school that created it. The Keep League City Beautiful (Citizens’ Commission) has the final say on what happens and where.

So far, the project to insert art in the open air has been positive.

“The responses on Facebook have been wonderful,” Osborne said. “People love to see them when they walk past, and they were very complimentary. The overall response has been amazing from the people who watched the artists and then drove by and saw the finished product. “

John DeLapp is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at [email protected]