DETROIT LAKES — The artists have been chosen, the locations have been finalized, and the contracts are nearly “wrapped” up: The Detroit Lakes Arts and Culture Commission is getting ready to flip the switch on a project to decorate seven Detroit Lakes Public Utilities (DLPU) power boxes with original artwork this summer.
The project, which is a collaboration between the Arts and Culture Commission and DLPU, will use vinyl wraps imprinted with images of the artists’ original artwork, rather than the application of paint or other art media directly to the boxes’ surface.
According to DLPU General Manager Vernell Roberts, this should not only ease the process of making the artwork fit more easily onto the available surface of each individual power box, but also the need to incorporate any required warning labels and coding for each box into the design.
It should also make future repairs and maintenance on the boxes a little easier, he added. As to how well the vinyl wraps will hold up to the rigors of a northwest Minnesota winter, “time will tell,” Roberts said, though it is expected that they should last for several years.
There were initially just six power boxes planned to be used for the project, with the possibility of adding a seventh if additional funding was found — which it was, thanks to a Blandin Foundation grant that Project 412 and the Historic Holmes Theatre received for creating public art projects in the community.
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“About half (of the funding) came from Detroit Lakes Public Utilities, and about half from the grant,” said Arts and Culture Commission Chairman Amy Stoller Stearns, who is also the executive director of Project 412.
“Vernell Roberts has wanted to do this (put artwork on city power boxes) for quite a while,” she added, so when the newly created Arts and Culture Commission was looking for its first project, this one seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
A call for artwork was sent out early this spring, according to commission member Nancy Haggart, and a total of 79 artist submissions were received and vetted by a jury that consisted of commission members and a handful of other volunteers.
“It went great,” Haggart said of the vetting process. “I think everybody was very happy with it (the quality of artwork submissions).”
Haggart said that she, along with fellow commission members Chris Henwood and Claire Danner, formed the subcommittee that was charged with researching what needed to be done to bring the project to fruition this year.
“Right now we are on schedule to have everything completed by the end of the summer,” Henwood said, adding that he is currently working with Trophy House co-owner Eric Tulius on the art installation process (the commission signed a contract with Trophy House for the vinyl wrap portion of the project early this spring).
Stearns noted that Henwood’s background as a graphic artist made him the obvious choice for this part of the project: He and Tulius will be working directly with the individual artists to make sure that the final vinyl wrap installation fits each artist’s vision.
The chosen artists and box locations are as follows:
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- Artist
, a Detroit Lakes native who currently lives in Avon, Indiana, will have her original work, titled “Experience Detroit Lakes II,” installed on a box near the American Legion Campground on West Lake Drive.
- Detroit Lakes artist
will have her original work, titled “The Fabulous Four Seasons,” installed on a box located on a bike path near Sanford Health, north of Langford Street in downtown Detroit Lakes.
- Naytahwaush artist
will have his original work, titled “Summer Sunset No. 1: Best of Times,” installed on a box located by Bremer Bank and the Lincoln Professional Building, near the corner of Holmes Street and Lincoln Avenue in downtown Detroit Lakes.
- Orono, Minnesota artist
will have her original work, titled “Winter with Blooming Orchids,” installed on a box located near Lakes Liquor (the municipal liquor store) on McKinley Avenue in downtown Detroit Lakes.
- Marin Westrum, a Detroit Lakes artist who graduated from high school last month, will have her original work, titled “Minnesota Wildflowers,” installed on a box located just south of the Washington Square Mall, on the corner of Holmes Street and Lake Avenue in downtown Detroit Lakes.
- Rural Detroit Lakes artist
will have her original work, titled “Gone Fishing,” installed on a box located between Walmart and Kentucky Fried Chicken on the Highway 10 frontage road on the west side of Detroit Lakes.
- Rochert artist
will have her original work, titled “Worm’s View,” installed on the Highway 10 frontage road near the Minnesota Department of Transportation office on the west side of Detroit Lakes.
“Hopefully, one of them will be installed by July 4,” said Stearns, though Henwood added that weather will play a role in that.
“It’s tough to put a wrap on a metal power box when the temperature is 90-plus degrees,” he said, and of course, summer storms are also a factor.
More public art projects are also coming to Detroit Lakes this summer thanks to the above-mentioned Blandin grant, which was submitted for the “Create DL” public art collaboration between Project 412 and the Historic Holmes Theatre. Visit
for more information.
