WooBox: Empresses of the Northern Song Arrive in Downtown Worcester
May 28, 2025 · Fei Wu
If you’ve driven through downtown Worcester recently, you may have spotted something a little unexpected, a utility box wrapped in silk-inspired elegance, crowned with dragons, peacocks, and empresses.
In fact, it’s not only Xiang Li’s art that’s been repurposed and wrapped around utility boxes but 37 artists who have helped transform the city’s unexpected corners and places.
This is WooBox, a public art installation created by my mother, Xiang Li, as part of Worcester’s utility box beautification project. It’s more than decoration—it’s a portal into ancient China, specifically the Northern Song dynasty, brought to life right here at the corner of Chandler and Irving Street in Worcester, Massachusetts.
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About the WooBox Art Project
The WooBox Art Project is a city-led initiative designed to transform ordinary utility boxes into vibrant public artworks that celebrate Worcester’s creativity and community spirit.
Led by the City of Worcester’s Cultural Development Office and the Worcester Cultural Coalition, in partnership with the Department of Transportation and Mobility, the project selected local artists to design and create original art that reflects the identity and diversity of our neighborhoods.
In total, 37 utility boxes across the city, once overlooked, now serve as canvases that brighten our streets, invite curiosity, and tell Worcester’s story through color, texture, and imagination.
These artworks highlight Worcester’s rich and diverse communities, celebrating history, culture, and visions for the future. Guided by Worcester’s Cultural Plan, the WooBox project uses public art to foster creative placemaking and build stronger community connections right in the public spaces we share every day.
To explore more WooBoxes across the city, visit the Worcester Public Art – Google My Maps to discover murals, installations, and wayfinding art.
Why a Utility Box?
When I first learned about the opportunity to transform a city utility box into public art, I immediately thought: this is our moment to do something playful, bold, and beautifully unexpected. My mother Xiang Li has spent over a decade painting nearly 200 Chinese empresses, many of whom have never been publicly celebrated or visualized in the West.
The Northern Song period, often overlooked in mainstream storytelling, offered us a rare chance to introduce early empresses in richly layered garments, full of cultural meaning and quiet power. With the limited space on a utility box, we had to be intentional. Every gesture, every phoenix feather, every flower had to carry weight. The result is a compact mural that tells a much bigger story.
Layers of Love and Legacy
This piece features several signature motifs from Xiang Li’s Chinese Empresses Collection. We have chosen a signature painting, Northern Song early period empresses for this project. The empresses themselves were painted with care, based on historical research, and reimagined with a sense of inner life and dignity.
But what makes this truly special for me is seeing it installed publicly in the city we’ve come to love. Worcester has welcomed our art and our story, from universities and galleries to libraries and now, utility boxes! This is personal. It’s also communal.
A Shoutout to the City
Huge thanks to the City of Worcester, the Worcester Cultural Coalition and everyone behind the WooBox initiative for opening the door to projects like this one. Public art doesn’t just beautify—it invites curiosity, conversation, and a deeper connection to the world around us.
It’s not every day you see an ancient Chinese empress while waiting at a crosswalk, but I hope that’s exactly what makes someone stop and smile.
If you’re near downtown Worcester, make your way to Chandler and Irving Street. Take a look. Snap a photo. Tag us @xiangliart. And know that this little box is carrying over 1,000 years of history, right on its panels.