Storm drains to serve as canvases in Mills 50

In the Mills 50 District, one of Orlando’s emerging havens for food and culture, it seems anything can be a canvas for urban art — from walls to utility cabinets and even trash bins.

Soon Mills 50 will add storm drains to the list. The district plans to issue a call to artists, hoping to find enough painters to decorate about 25 drains, with the help of a recently awarded grant from the city.

“It’s just a way to find another canvas, so to speak, for these very talented people to express themselves,” said District 4 City Commissioner Patty Sheehan, who herself has painted a trash bin and a utility box.

Known as home to popular restaurants, the district has in recent years become ground zero for Orlando’s urban art. The district also has more than a dozen murals on “permission walls.”

The projects all aim to transform eyesores and overlooked features of the urban landscape into art — and also offer a legal alternative to graffiti, which has plagued Mills 50.

The City Council approved $3,500 in grant funding at its Dec. 14 meeting. The district will match that with “cash, volunteer hours and in-kind services,” said Mills 50 Executive Director Joanne Grant.

Grant said she’s still identifying the storm drains that would be painted, probably about 15 in the business corridor and 10 in nearby neighborhoods. She hopes to put out a call to artists perhaps as soon as January.

She said the district will provide the paint and supplies, and the artists selected will be paid a small stipend. Painters who participated in the utility box and trash bin projects were paid $100, Grant said.

A committee of volunteers will author the call to artists, judge the proposals and select which artist will paint which drain. Grant said she hopes to have the painting done before the summer months arrive.

Mills 50 District is an organization of business owners, residents and officials, which that oversees branding for the corridor along Mills Avenue from Lake Formosa to Amelia Street, and a perpendicular stretch of Colonial Drive.

For the drain project, the phrase “only rain down the drain,” meant to urge residents not to pollute the city’s stormwater, must be incorporated.

jeweiner@tribune.com or 407-420-5171