Downtown Saint Paul’s Amped Art
Artist-Designed Utility Boxes
Artists’ digital designs now wrap 16 utility boxes near Mears Park and Kellogg Mall Park, transforming everyday infrastructure into storytelling canvases that reflect the identity, memory, and vitality of Saint Paul. From the story of the Underground Railroad to Southeast Asian family dinners to the Red Caps of Union Depot and native species of plants and animals of the Mississippi, each artist offers a new way to see into the history and people of our capital city.
Background
In late 2024, the City of Saint Paul’s Parks and Recreation department hired Forecast to lead the artistic component of their downtown activation strategy. This strategy aims to activate public spaces to increase vibrancy, engage the community, and create a lively, welcoming environment that attracts both residents and visitors.
Project Goal + Forecast’s Role
With our team at the helm of the strategy’s artistic component, the goal included identifying and onboarding local and regional artists. We aim to enhance public dialogue and foster an inclusive, diverse artistic presence in downtown Saint Paul. After engaging local stakeholders, we developed and implemented an open call for Minnesota-based artists.
Amped Art: Utility Box Design Commissions
Overview
Forecast invited Minnesota-based artists of all experience levels to submit qualifications to create digital designs covering utility boxes near two signature parks: Mears Park and Kellogg Mall Park. This opportunity sought artists who are excited to explore themes of the Mississippi River, Minnesota land, Saint Paul’s rich park systems, local history, culture, and the diverse residents who shape the city. The artist selection process included local and regional outreach to ensure a diverse applicant pool; one hundred twenty-three artists responded to the call.
Four artists were selected—Ngân Huynh, Ruby Thompson, Shea Maze, and Stef Kiihn. Selected designs were professionally wrapped onto sixteen utility boxes, transforming everyday infrastructure into captivating public art that reflects the identity and vitality of Saint Paul.
Browse completed utility box design installations
Artist: Ngân Huynh
Read Ngân’s artist statement
I aim to create artworks that showcase Southeast Asian cuisine and culture across the Twin Cities, with a focus on Saint Paul, which boasts a rich diversity of Southeast Asian cultures. Cultures, to me, include a nation’s cuisine, attire, and accessories, as well as its people. To highlight these aspects in my designs, I illustrate different elements from these four ethnicities: Vietnamese, Khmer, Thai, and Hmong. I researched their traditional clothings and highlighted foods that I’ve tried from Saint Paul restaurants. While working on these themes, I also wanted to draw attention to the diverse queer identities of a person and illustrate them through the use of different pride flag colors in their clothing, or by showing how different characters interact with each other, which makes you wonder about their story. Family is also a significant part of Southeast Asian culture; whether it’s bound by blood or found family, we all want to sit down and have a nice family dinner together at the end of the day. When looking at my utility boxes, I hope you’ll be able to notice these elements: the Tết holiday, the Hmong story cloth, the Songkran festival, and the Khmer dance.
Artist: Ruby Thompson
Read Ruby’s artist statement
My art combines scientific illustration with fantastical and folk-art inspired details. For this project I was inspired by the native species of plants and animals found around Saint Paul, especially along the Mississippi River. Each box features a number of species that are connected to one another through their ecosystems: the river, floodplain forests, and oak savannas. I wanted to play with the three-dimensionality of the boxes by having borders around each side that connected to one another, showing their relationships to one another—we are all part of one whole.
Utility boxes are both invisible and ever-present on city streets. As I worked on this project I found myself seeing them everywhere! I wanted to make something that would encourage passers-by to pause to take in all the small details. I hope my artwork makes you stop and look, leaving you more curious about the plants and animals that live here.
Artist: Shea Maze
Read Shea’s artist statement
The “Red Caps” of Union Depot were a group of predominantly black porters responsible for greeting travelers, handling bags, and maintaining Union Depot through various daily tasks for nearly 90 years. Through the height of railway transportation, these men made Saint Paul shine, all while being paid low wages and relying primarily on gratuity. I believe these are grounds to assert that these men were responsible for many travelers’ first impressions of Saint Paul, and the perception of the city in general.
Many Red Caps were community leaders in Rondo and are credited with building a healthy black middle class there. Although this era of Rondo was dismantled by structural racism, the values these men instilled in their community lives on today through their successors.
My connection to Saint Paul starts with my Grandmother’s connection to Rondo, where she would spend her summers as a young girl. It was the fondness with which she recounted these memories that was the catalyst in my partner and I considering Saint Paul as the place we would start our family.
Artist: Stef Kiihn
Read Stef’s artist statement
Each box design originates from my ink drawings, inviting viewers to locate themselves within the map and engage with Saint Paul’s layered history. Joseph Farr and the Underground Railroad honors the pre–Civil War efforts to free enslaved people brought north by visiting plantation owners. Clara Eva Hardenbrook celebrates the determination of women who fought for the right to vote in the early twentieth century. Phalen Creek and Trout Brook (Swede Hollow) reflects on a sacred Dakota site that later became a haven for waves of immigrants seeking new beginnings, and on the cycles of migration, labor, loss, and renewal that have shaped its waterways and surrounding land.
Find the stories of individual map illustrations at kiihn.com
Selected Artists
Ngân Huynh
Forecast Public ArtRead Ngân’s bio
Ngân Huynh (she/they) is a Vietnamese illustrator based in Minneapolis.
Their love of mythology, fairy tales, and family storytelling inspired them to turn everyday moments into captivating narratives. In addition to designing various brand identities and websites, Ngân has also illustrated for numerous publications, including Paranoid Tree Press, Issue 26, and the Amazon Bestseller Blue Marble Review Anthology: Volume 2. They are currently working on publishing their children’s book inspired by their childhood and Vietnamese culture.
When not working away on their tablet or sketchbook, you can find Ngân immersed in a new graphic novel or forcing their two cats to sit together cutely for an Instagram photo. nganelichuynh.com
Ruby Thompson
Forecast Public ArtRead Ruby’s bio
Ruby Thompson (she/they) is a visual artist specializing in watercolor, digital media, and fiber arts. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, their work weaves local ecology, natural history, and pattern-making into vibrant illustrations. Her art invites the viewer to think about their relationship with nature, and to look more closely at the world around them.
Shea Maze
Forecast Public ArtRead Shea’s bio
Shea Maze is an interdisciplinary Artist and Chef who creates biologically inspired sculptures, and multi-sensory experiences that prioritize the use of materials and inspiration from the natural world. His practice aims to deconstruct, analyze, capture, and honor the complexity of life while combatting an ever-producing society of existential distractions and quick thrills fueled by consumerism. Shea’s work reaches into the past, with feet planted firmly in the present. He seeks to emphasize warmth, heritage, tradition and perseverance, with a lens made mirky by Black diaspora. He creates at an intersection of ancestry and the unknown, often informed by history.
Shea would like to believe that through using his identity and environment as the catalyst for his work, he is making art more approachable, thus helping cultivate interconnectedness among our communities, art, and nature.
Stef Kiihn
Forecast Public ArtRead Stef’s bio
Stefanie Kiihn is a Minnesota-based artist who works in pen and ink. The principal theme in her art is the history of a place. Her favorite location is Saint Paul. Her work investigates neighborhoods to match historic maps to current streets and buildings. She researches the people and architecture of the past to locate the ghost-like footprints that are left. What did the city look like before freeways and railroads? Where are the lost neighborhoods and lost ways of life? What architectural treasures have been lost? What are the stories of the people who shaped the city we know today?
For more about the stories portrayed on the utility boxes, please visit kiihn.com.
Call Details [closed]
Invitational Call for Artists/Design Teams
Call Open : July 10 – August 7, 2025 at 11:59 PM CDT
Art Commission: $4,000 stipend per artist (includes all artist time, design development, print-ready file preparation, and production team coordination)
Commissions [that were] Available: 4 (open to artist teams)
Eligibility
Priority was given to artists who live or work in Saint Paul. No prior public art experience required. Selected artist requirements:
- Reside in Minnesota.
- Demonstrate the ability to complete a digital design for a medium scale application.
- Have an interest in public art and love Saint Paul!
- Be comfortable using technology including, but not limited to
- Communicating in a timely manager via email or telephone
- Online research tools
- Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides
Locations
The utility box locations are in Downtown Saint Paul, near and adjacent to Mears Park and Kellogg Mall Park.
Each selected artist was assigned no more than 4 utility boxes. Designs were digitally rendered and suitable for vinyl wrap production.
Budget
Each selected artist received a $4,000 artist stipend. This fee includes all artist time, design development, preparation of print-ready files, and coordination with the production team. The City and Forecast managed installation.
About Forecast
Forecast firmly believes that culture and creativity are important drivers of creating a more just society. As one of the country’s first nonprofit organizations dedicated to advancing the field of public art, we are called to advocate for and advance public art practices that advance justice, health and human dignity. We are invested in public art that plays a crucial role in creating a sense of belonging, and supporting people to realize their potential and live healthy lives. We emphasize access for artists of color, indigenous artists, and groups that are traditionally excluded.
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