Belfast Canvas

CLIENT - Belfast City Council

Belfast Canvas is an ongoing project where Daisy Chain Inc and Seedhead Arts have been commissioned to adorn the streets of Belfast with junction boxes painted by local and international artists.

Phase I - Based on a Dublin model where junction boxes become canvases for artists, CQ Bid partnered with Belfast One and BCC to commission 18 junction boxes between May and October 2019. A subsequent series of workshops, including feedback from Belfast residents provided a basis for 4 more junction boxes on the Newtownards Road and Falls Road.

Phase II - A further 30 junction boxes were painted in Belfast city centre.

Phase III - This phase expanded outside of Belfast city centre and into Belfast’s arterial routes. 22 artists transformed 30 new junction boxes across the city and repaired 8 boxes from previous phases.

Daisy Chain Inc designed and facilitated a public consultation programme that explored people's relationships with Belfast as a place to live and work. The findings of the public consultation (200+ participants) have informed the artistic briefs for the scheme in each iteration of the project.

Phase IV - In this phase Daisy Chain Inc ran an upskilling workshop for visual artists who were interested in street art but did not know where to start. Artists on this workshop painted 14 of the 23 junction boxes in this phase.

Phase V - In the most recent phase (2024-25) Daisy Chain Inc commissioned 25 artists to transform 27 junction boxes across the city, including the restoration of 5 boxes from previous phases. The upskilling workshop for artists took part again with 10 participants painting a junction box each and the remaining painted by national and international artists. In this phase, Nominate a Box, a public call-out was included to provide citizens with the opportunity to have their say on which boxes were painted in their local area.

The Belfast Canvas project (to date) has adorned the streets of Belfast with over 130 junction boxes.