JIll Schramm/MDN Art featuring a buffalo is displayed at a light box on Second Avenue Southeast in downtown Minot.

The Magic City Lions Club City Beautification Project is beginning to make its mark on the downtown.

The club, working with Too Dark Motorsports, is installing artwork on 10 street light boxes along Burdick and Broadway, north and east of the streets’ intersection. There will be another four utility box sites decorated with art within the downtown.

Proposed last year, the project had to wait until the weather was consistently warm enough to apply the anti-graffiti vinyl wraps and until Too Dark Motorsports was past the busiest part of its race season, said Magic City Lions member Ann Olson, who has been helping coordinate the project.

The Lions Club developed the project to pitch to the Magic 60 mini-grant program last year.

“We got a lot of inspiration from Bismarck from their downtown. They did something very similar,” Olson said.

The club secured support from Magic 60, the state Lions Foundation, North Dakota Community Foundation, Gate City Bank, First Western Bank and Minot Area Community Foundation’s Mike and Dorothy Dolan Fund and Gordon and Elizabeth Emerson Fund.

The artwork was produced by local artists, of whom most are students whose art was selected from State Fair entries. The Lions Club worked through the schools to obtain permissions to the art.

Olson said a ribbon cutting eventually will be scheduled. Currently, artwork is still in the process of being installed. Olson said the Lions Club also hopes to work with Visit Minot regarding promotion of an art trail to include the utility boxes.