Mini murals toast downtown Kennewick

Eastbound drivers on Columbia Drive are being welcomed to downtown by a mini mural in the most unexpected of places — a traffic control cabinet near the entrance to Clover Island.

The recently installed artwork features a man toasting oncoming traffic with a glass of red wine.

The mini mural is the brainchild of the Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership, which plans to install them on all 13 traffic boxes in downtown in coming years. The project has taken three years and is funded with private donations.

The downtown group borrowed traffic box art concept from other Main Street communities. But the wine-drinking fellow is the first time it’s been tried in the Tri-Cities.

“It’s not a new idea. But it is a new idea for the Tri-Cities,” said Dan Smith, the group’s executive director.

It costs $1,500 to commission art and transfer the image onto a special vinyl sheet that is then wrapped around the traffic control box.

Tri-City artist Justin Hall created the design for the original location. Bettendorf’s Printing transferred it onto the vinyl surface.

The vinyl is intended to be easy to clean if it gets tagged with graffiti. Smith is hopeful would-be taggers will respect works of art enough to leave them untagged.

Smith said the murals are meant to inject a bit of color into downtown. Residents regularly tell the partnership they want more flowers, building colors and even more diversity in public art, which currently consists of bronze statues.

The reddish color is a nod to Visit Tri-Cities’ effort to improve signage through the Tri-Cities for visitors.

The proposed “way-finding” signs will give each community a signature color and icon. Kennewick’s will be red, Richland’s green, Pasco’s blue and West Richland’s a yellowish-orange.

The second mural will be installed on a traffic box at First and Washington by the end of the year.

Smith said there has been some criticism that the debut mural appeared childish. That’s by design, he said.

The association wanted a playful, artisan image, not a history project. The street-side murals aim to to be lively and to give not only passing drivers but pedestrians something to enjoy in their travels.

In the interim, the mural is drawing attention to common public infrastructure that most people never notice — the metal cabinets that contain the controls for traffic lights. The art project has opened Smith’s eyes.

“I notice them everywhere.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2017 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Mini murals toast downtown Kennewick."