Beyond the Box murals celebrate people with disabilities

Residents and visitors can now find new installations of Glendale’s Beyond the Box – Mural Art Program throughout Glendale. Artists submitted proposals inspired by this year’s theme of ‘Celebrating People with Disabilities’ to promote a positive representation of people with disabilities in all types of media.  

The Beyond the Box program was launched in May 2014 with the goal of beautifying Glendale’s cityscape, focusing first on Downtown Glendale – a popular area for residents and visitors. Today, the program has grown tremendously to include over 100 painted utility box murals throughout Glendale and continues to successfully enhance the city’s unique identity by positively impacting Glendale’s streetscape. A previous artist, Elizabeth Sargsyan says she applied “with the hope that a little piece of my art would go out into my favorite city, Glendale, I hope that my art will pave ways and open doors to me to become an animator”.  All artists and creatives are welcome to apply to the Beyond the Box Program when applications are released once per year, each summer.  

You can locate the current utility box murals on Glendale Arts & Culture Commission’s public art map  by visiting https://www.glendaleartsandculture.org/beyondthebox.  Learn more about the commission’s openings and opportunities as well as the artists behind the work. You might even feel inspired to create your own walking tour of public art in Glendale!  

The mission of the Arts and Culture Commission is to enrich the human experience, reinforce Glendale’s identity and civic pride through arts and culture, and to recognize the importance of arts to our quality of life and to the local economy. This is accomplished by consciously integrating arts and culture into the daily life of the people of Glendale through urban design, planning, economic development, and education. 

Left to right: Artwork by Sarah Halpenny, Taleen Janian, Milton-Scott Kubota, Nami Oh, and Shant Saiyan.