An Evanston high school student is trying to bring a little more beauty to Evanston by decorating utility boxes across the city with photographs.

Emily Lubin, an Evanston resident and high school senior at North Shore Country Day School, decorated the utility box on the corner of Sherman Avenue and Church Street with a photo of Lake Michigan this fall. The box serves as the pilot for the public art project called “Outside the Box,” which aims to beautify utility boxes across the city.

Lubin came up with the idea after visiting Sun Valley, Idaho, over the summer and seeing a similar beautification project there.

“I guess you don’t really notice how drab and ugly the boxes can be until you see how they look when they’re beautified,” Lubin said. “I started noticing the boxes all around Evanston and how out of place and kind of ugly they looked, so I thought that this would be a great project for Evanston to do.”

Lubin approached Downtown Evanston and First Bank and Trust to get the box sponsored. They agreed that decorating the boxes was a good idea and helped pay for the project.

Lubin began the program with the box outside of Barnes and Noble, 1630 Sherman Ave.

“She chose this box because it was in a good position downtown, and it also was, in her opinion, the ugliest,” said Annie Coakley, executive director of Downtown Evanston.

Coakley said she directed Lubin to the Evanston Arts Council, which would be able to help her get the project moving.

The photograph of the lakefront decorating the pilot box is the work of local artist Ted Glasoe, who is known for his lakefront scenery work.

“We thought it would make more sense if it was an Evanston photographer and an Evanston scene,” said Jennifer Lasik, cultural arts coordinator for Evanston.

Glasoe initially offered to donate his work for the project, but the Evanston Arts Council voted to give him a small fee for the work anyway.

“We think that artists should be paid for their work,” Lasik said.

There are plans to continue “Outside the Box” beyond the pilot and fill Evanston with more decorated boxes, Lasik said. The hope is business districts will sponsor their own boxes to reflect the “cooperation and uniqueness of the neighborhoods,” she said.

Lasik said they are hoping to see similar projects take place in areas such as on Chicago Avenue between Main and Dempster streets and Central Street.

“We’d like businesses that feel passionate about beautifying their neighborhoods and their commercial districts to take on that and work with an artist, and work with us to get it done,” Lasik said. “(Lubin) got it done, and it has been one of the most popular art projects we’ve done in a long time.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated that Barnes and Nobles helped sponsor the decoration of the utility box. The box was sponsored by the Evanston Arts Council, Downtown Evanston and First Bank and Trust. The Daily regrets the error.

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