Plant City is a vibrant and growing downtown. Much of its charm is due to its hometown feel, but a lot also has to do with how the city partners with organizations and individuals to bring art to the downtown area.
The newest collaboration between Plant City Main Street, MAKE Plant City and the City of Plant city is called the Trash Can-Vas program. The first one is an art decorated trash dumpster located in a parking lot off of Palmer Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Plant City. The dumpster is part of an initiative to bring more public art to Downtown Plant City. The collaboration between Plant City Main Street, MAKE Plant City and the City of Plant City is a follow-up to the Electric Art Box project, which saw many of downtown’s electric boxes wrapped in vinyl artwork from a number of area artists.
The dumpster art is titled Always in Season. It features Florida-native flora and fauna painted by Courtney Dodson, a St. Petersburg visual artist. Dodson was selected from a pool of artists who responded to the project’s call for artists. Dodson’s bold colors and clean lines in her whimsical paintings and digital art are found in local galleries and exhibits across Tampa Bay, including Lucid Vending Machines, Green Bench Brewing and Only Rain Down the Drain, a recently completed mural for the city of Pinellas Park completed in 2022.
“We were thrilled with the art community’s response to the Trash Can-Vas program,” said Arley Smude of MAKE Plant City. “With over 20 incredible submissions, it was another reminder of the vast, and pent-up, creative talent in the area,” added Smude.
“The Trash Can-Vas program adds a piece of unexpected beauty, which helps to make downtown a more interesting and vibrant place to walk, shop and enjoy,” said Dawn Hyatt, executive director of Plant City Main Street. “We are so appreciative of this collaboration to support the Downtown Vision Plan by adding public art,” added Hyatt.
MAKE Plant City is a nonprofit organization that aims to inspire and connect people for a more creative and dynamic community. For more information, follow them on Facebook.
Plant City Main Street is an affiliate of a national network that wants to create high-quality places and build strong communities through preservation-based economic development. For more information, please visit www.plantcitymainstreet.org.
For more information on the City of Plant City, please visit www.plantcitygov.com.
