DEPTH STORY - BY CASEY NIMMER 

       Making your way around Fort Collins, you are bound to have noticed the vibrantly painted boxes and pianos that dot the town.  Bright blue with luscious green stems that grow into glowing sunflowers, deep red with free flowing bubbles of white, yellow and black. From far away this phenomenon may appear to be an interesting display of art, which it is, but it represents more than that. This intricate form of public decoration is actually a unique solution to public vandalism, snowballing into an important role in the Fort Collins community. 
    Graffiti on transformer boxes and other structures around town was a never ending problem, with a costly and timely solution for cleaning it up. In April of 1995 however, the Art in Public Places program, or APP, was instated by City Ordinance No. 20 with a different proposal. Rather than cleaning up the graffiti year after year, why not decorate the prime target spots?
    APP therefore collaborated with the Utilities Electric Department to start painting the transformer boxes so that graffiti artists would be discouraged from performing vandalism. It also gives local artists the chance to display their art out in the community.
    “The purpose of APP is to encourage and enhance artistic expression and art appreciation while adding value to the Fort Collins community through acquiring, exhibiting and maintaining public art,” explained Ellen Martin, the visual arts administrator for APP.
    Martin has been involved with the program since its creation in 1995 and has assisted with over 93 projects and 116 transformer cabinet sites. Her responsibilities include helping the board hire artists for projects, create connections to other town organizations and recommend projects to city council.
    Some of the organizations that are most commonly partnered with APP are Bohemian Foundation, Downtown Development Authority and Utilities Electric Department. These connections have led to several collaborative efforts such as Pianos About Town, Art in the Alleys project and Art in Action project.
    The first of these joint efforts Martin had the pleasure of working on was the first transformer box to be painted by the artist Amelia Caruso as part of the Art in Alleys project. Caruso is a local artist that has also done work for other APP projects in Colorado Springs and Northern Colorado. When APP was first coming together Caruso applied to be the artist for the first transformer box and the rest is history.
    Caruso’s unique circular patterned displays can be seen around town on transformer boxes and on one of the pianos donated for Pianos About Town.
    In hopes to bring further artistic expression and access to Fort Collins, old pianos are donated by people from the community and placed by the Pianos About Town project members around the city. Then artists like Caruso are hired by the board of community volunteers that runs APP to paint them. This not only adds character and color to the project, but it also keeps graffiti to a minimum.
    “You want to make the boxes and pianos as covered and busy as possible so graffiti artists don’t want to go anywhere near it,” explained Caruso.
    This new take on graffiti prevention not only boosts the color and vibrancy of the city but gives local artists the chance for a steady pay check and free advertisement.
    “The way I paint is sort of specific; this way my art becomes kind of billboards for me and my style,” said Caruso.
    Another artist, Gale Whitman also mentioned public display of her work as a benefit of being part of APP, “It gets me out there as a permanent part of the city.”
    Whitman rents a studio space at the Art Center of Fort Collins along with twelve other artists and stated that on several occasions people will come in and see her work and be like, “oh you’re the one that did the piano!” Whitman takes this reaction as quite the compliment because it means the public not only sees her art but remembers it and is excited to be able to put a face to the artist who did it.
    Whitman also discussed how she enjoys, “living in a city with lots of forward looking people” is response to the idea of using art as graffiti prevention.
    It may seem like a simple solution, but the manner in which these projects progress consists of several steps. First, the project is proposed to  city council. Following its approval, the board for APP hires an artist for the job. Then someone is sent out to paint the entire object any solid color of the artist’s choice. Once that is complete the artists are free to paint whatever they like, the only restrictions being typical public constraints such as political or religious affiliations and profanity. Upon completion a clear coat is set over the entire project and it is ready for the public to enjoy. 
    Payment for the projects mostly comes from donations made to the city and city capital projects. Artists are paid through these donations for each square foot of work completed, but are required to provide their own materials. Caruso compared it to electricians saying that they bring their own tools and so do the artists, but they are still paid for the job itself.
    “It can be a form of steady payment if you keep up with it, which is always nice,” said Caruso.
    Another benefit for the artists is the environment in which they get to work.
“You can just put headphones on and listen to what you want and paint, it’s hard to find a better dig than that,” explained Caruso.
    With perks like free advertisement, a stable paycheck and a dream job outside it is no wonder that APP has a steady stream of applicants for its projects.
    The program has continued to expand from painting the transformer boxes and the Pianos About Town project to accepting sculptures and other forms of art to be placed around the city such as “Free to Dance.”
    Free to Dance is a sculpture installed at the corner of Walnut and Linden Street, created by Jim Lynxwiler as part of the Art in Action Project.
    With several renovations of alleyways, completed paintings of the transformer boxes and continued plans for more pianos this summer, APP is holding onto a strong position in Fort Collins.
    However, recently there have been problems between APP and city council. Earlier this year in January at a city council meeting APP’s future was threatened by the council. The council stated that they did not want to eliminate the project as much as have further control and awareness concerning allocation of funds for the projects. They want to be sure that the donations being made to the city are appropriately used and spread throughout the city.
    Several artists involved in APP appeared at the meeting to defend the program. One of the leaders of the defense was Kirsten Savage who has painted three transformer cabinets, a Piano About Town and a 10-foot stallion as part of the Rearin’ To Go campaign - a campaign thats focus is a collection of patriotic and historically painted horses and cattle to advertise the history of Colorado and America.
    While advocating for the program Savage mentioned several occasions in which she was complimented by the public, “…there were hundreds of students and families who would just give a friendly honk and yell from their cars, ‘we love it!’ as they drove by.”
    “When I think about my travels and what creates an interesting city and draws me to it as a tourist, I think of rich arts culture and public art. Fort Collins has this same potential for economic and cultural growth with the continued support of and expansion of the Art in Public Places program,” said Savage.
    Martin would agree that APP is an important part of Fort Collins for the community and the local economy. In her opinion, some of the most successful aspects of placing art in public places are that, “APP projects have helped create a sense of place and uniqueness to Fort Collins, provided environments for discovery and exploration, acknowledged our Fort Collin’s history, enhanced our physical environment, promoted community involvement and is an economic driver.”
    The program that began as a solution to a problem, has come together with several other city organizations becoming a stamp for Fort Collins visitors and residents. The artists and supporters of the program made a quality fight in defense of Art in Public Places against city council keeping it operating with future plans to add another painted Piano About Town every two weeks from May to October.
    Caruso has already been hired for one of the pianos, with several other returning artists given another chance to display their talent to the public.
    So the next time you are about town and you notice a young child tapping away on slightly out of tune keys of a shining yellow piano, or you see a geometric pattern catching out of the corner of your eye, you will know where these little details of Fort Collins came from.