A local internet provider hatched an idea to beautify a stretch of Route 66 in Grants, New Mexico — repaint a surplus of satellite dishes to resemble Native American bowls.
Connect 66 Internet didn’t need the dishes and could have taken them to the dump, the company told KRQE-TV. Instead, it came up with a better — and unique — idea.
From the report:
The ‘baskets’ are eight-feet wide and just about that tall. They currently line Route 66 in Grants, right outside the New Mexico Mining Museum.
“I’m very excited they are in Grants,” said Robert Gallegos, Director of the Cibola Arts Council.
Gallegos’ group worked closely with the broadband company on this project. It started back in May with just one basket.
“We put some baskets up in the beginning and then we had a call to artists,” said Nicolaou.
The company picked three local artists to design an additional four baskets. […]
The only basket not designed by a local artist is the original one, an ancient Chacoan basket found by Boy Scouts in the 1980s while they were camping in El Malpais National Monument.
“This is our connection to the array,” said Gallegos.
Here’s the video from the station:
The arts council hopes to eventually line both sides of Route 66 with the decorated dishes and expand it into the neighboring Route 66 village of Milan.
(Images of the repainted satellite dishes along Route 66 in Grants, New Mexico, by Connect 66 Internet via Facebook)