The Utility Pole Project

Since 2000, The Utility Pole Project has combined fresh, originally designed posters with weathered posters harvested from Seattle’s utility poles to invoke hope, love, and resilience in the face of political and cultural violence.

Our latest installation, Somos lo que crece / We are what grows, will envelop five electric poles on 1st Avenue from June to August 2026. Posters carrying imagery and song lyrics conveying our team’s pride in – and longing for – our ancestral homes will form living tributes to the unwavering vitality of Seattle’s immigrant communities.

Somos lo que crece / We are what grows is part of We Still Dream a Future and made possible with generous support from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

Palimpsest

2025. Installation view in Reshimu at Gallery 4Culture. Image credit: Joe Freeman.

A pole in the middle of a poster harvest, January 2025.