The Town of Zionsville and Zionsville Cultural District (ZCD) have kicked off Zionsville’s next public art project: painting traffic control boxes. The painting of Zionsville’s first traffic control box, located at 106th and Zionsville Road, is currently underway.
Local artist Cynthia Young has been selected to paint this traffic box. Young has chosen a dahlia theme to tie into the town’s historic connection to the flower and the box’s close proximity to Dahlia Drive.
In the 1920s, Zionsville was known as The Dahlia City due to two Zionsville nurseries that had dahlia gardens: the Tudor Gardens, located at what is now Fifth and Ash Streets and the Parkway Gardens, located where Eagle Elementary currently stands.
Fred Gresh owned Parkway Gardens. At the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago, Gresh was awarded the coveted Gold Medal for his hybrid “Zion’s Pride” dahlia, a dahlia that Young aimed to capture in her artwork.
“The ZCD is thrilled to bring to the community another piece of public art. We would like to thank and acknowledge the Town of Zionsville for their continued support and partnership as we work to fulfill our vision to make art obvious for our community and tourists,” said Carla Howie, ZCD Board President. “We would also like to thank Cynthia Young for capturing the beauty of the dahlia and its historical significance to Zionsville.”
“This is another great public art partnership between the Town and ZCD and over the next few years, we hope to add more painted boxes,” said Mayor Tim Haak. “Public art projects like this one and the Lincoln mural not only add to the Town’s culture and quality of place, but build a sense of community.”