Dupont Circle residents may have noticed many of the obsolete fire and police call boxes in the area have re-painted, and contain a card explaining after September 10 they’ll contain displays showcasing the history and culture of the community. The citywide Art on Call program provides neighborhood organizations funds to renovate the boxes in their neighborhoods provided they work with artists and historians to come up with a plan to renovate and reuse the existing, decaying boxes. According to the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities, of the 875 call boxes cleaned by DDOT throughout the city, 450 are already involved in the Art on Call program in some way.

Predictably, the Dupont Circle group is well organized, with a variety of materials about the project and the group’s meetings posted on their website, including photos of two demonstration boxes, both near 20th and R Streets NW. The Dupont Circle group is currently planning a “Grand Unveiling Event” for September 10 that will include food, music, historic fire equipment, and walking tours, and they encourage people interested in planning the event to attend their next planning meeting, which is scheduled for tomorrow night. The first Art on Call boxes were unveiled in December 2004 in Mount Pleasant. Read more about the Art on Call project in Dupont Circle in Preservation magazine.