They are on nearly every street corner across Brisbane and thanks to a landmark painting competition, award-winning designs are coming to a street near you.

Brisbane City Council’s Artforce power box painting competition has once again produced a new wave of talent at the 2009 Artforce Awards, announced recently at the Powerhouse.

The longstanding Brisbane City Council program allows people to paint traffic signal boxes normally representing eyesores to city streets.

Families and Communities Chair Geraldine Knapp said winners were chosen from 152 traffic signal boxes painted this year.

“The city’s 1000 traffic signal boxes used to be Council’s most graffitied asset,” Cr Knapp said.

“Today, they’re great pieces of public art, and a great way for the community to get their artwork recognised in a very public way on our streets.”

The 2009 overall winner with a prize of $1000 was Jak Rapmund with his artwork in Fortitude Valley “Memory Loss”.

Best Indigenous Artist went to Jemima Sambono for “Water, Snake Fire” at Milton.  The Under 18s prize went to Jessica Wright for “Lucky Sunny Q150” at Sunnybank.

Best School entry this year went to Sandgate District High School – Shae Rudd for artwork “Yacht Race” at Taigum.

This year a special award commemorated Brisbane’s and Queensland’s 150th birthday under the joint Council and State Government program, Connecting Brisbane.

Best Q150 TSB with a $1,000 prize went to Phillip Hammond for his artwork “Auld Lang Syne” at Milton.

Other winners include:
· Under 12 – Ned Hastie for “Spacebots” at Chermside
· Best Organisation – QLD Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma for “Me and You” at Yeronga
· Best Reconciliation artwork – Guido van Helten for “Living in Harmony” at Lutwyche

For more information visit www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/artforce or phone 3403 8888.
Artforce is a Brisbane City Council initiative managed by Urban Smart Projects.

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