DALLAS: The Dallas Police Department worked with the Public Art Program of the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs and the Deep Ellum community to commission designs for parking meter to be placed along several streets in Deep Ellum.
Artist Terry Hays was chosen by a selection panel of community members, arts professionals and representatives from the Dallas Police Department. Hays’ interest in the architecture of Deep Ellum and cultural imagery from Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea, China, and Japan is referenced in the 10 designs selected for the parking meter poles. Starting with fragments of images from these sources he combined, enlarged and reformated a collection of visual elements to arrive at the finished designs. The images are applied to the PVC pipes that will be artistic sleeves over the parking meter poles. The artwork relates in spirit to the vibrant images found in Deep Ellum.
This project evolved from a pilot program developed in 2014. One Meter at a Time, was a partnership with the Dallas Police Department and the Office of Cultural Affairs to transform 60 parking meters into works of public art. Seven local artists were selected to design functioning parking meters in Downtown Dallas, Farmers Market and Oak Cliff.
The partnership received local and national attention by the press and was recognized by The International Parking Institute in the July 2015 issue of Parking Professional Magazine. The International Parking Institute is the world’s largest educational and networking organization for parking and transportation professionals.
