Call For Entries // NYCDOT's Barrier Beautification Program Wants Artists to Add Some Color To City Streets

"Planes A-Way" by Almond Zigmond - 21st Williamsburg St W between Kent and Flushing Aves, Brooklyn - alll photos via nycstreets

While our streets could definitely stand to benefit from the rogue creative touch of a guerilla gardener like Steven Wheen, NYCDOT is also trying to add a little more color to some of the city's many swathes of asphault and concrete. 

In 2010, as part of its Urban Art intitative, NYCDOT launched the Barrier Beautification program in collaboration with volunteer organization New York Cares and Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit. The program commissions artists and designers to create murals for those ugly concrete barriers that often separate bike lanes from automobile traffic. The cost of all materials is covered, selected artists are also awarded a $2,000 honorarium for their work, and New York Cares volunteers assist the artists with their murals, which stay up for 11 months.

Want to give some New Yorkers a more colorful commute? Got an amazing mural idea in mind? If so, the open call deadline for Barrier Beautification proposals is February 24.

For inspiration, we've included some images of past Barrier Beautification murals after the jump. You can also check out more examples over on NYCDOT's Flickr archive and get all of the details in the program's application packet.

Tillary Street Barrier Art by Chris Beck and Tanya Albrightsen-Frable - Tillary Street north of Adams Street, Brooklyn

"Roots/Routes" by Julia Whitney Barnes - West 155th St between Edgecombe Ave and Harlem River Dr, Manhattan

"Reflecting Pond" by Corinne Ulmann - 97th and Centreville Streets, Queens

"Face to Face" by Debra Hampton - Furman St between Joralemon and Montague Sts, Brooklyn

"Antimacassars" by Jennifer Cecere - FDR Service Drive North between 35th and 37th Sts, Manhattan-- John Ruscher