The Awesome Box: A sweet twist on public art
The “Awesome Box” is an art piece made by Ottawa-based contemporary artist Rich Loen in hopes of encouraging the sharing of kind messages between members of the community.
“People just come, they listen to a few messages and they go, all right, I get it. I know what to do. And they leave the most beautiful, happy, joyous, perfect, wonderful messages,” said Loen.
The idea behind Loen’s Awesome Box is that someone leaves a kind message recorded by a speaker in the box that can be replayed by the next onlooker, with the goal of spreading positive messages between the people who interact with the box.
The Awesome Box is a part of a greater initiative launched in June 2026 by the City of Ottawa in collaboration with the Ottawa Art Gallery with the hopes of creating more visible and walkable destinations for residents and visitors of the downtown core. One of the most prominent components of this initiative has been increasing the amount of visible public art attractions throughout downtown Ottawa.
Awesome Boxes have been installed in the downtown core and they have been popular attractions since being installed in August.
“We’re getting hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of messages a day,” said Loen. “It’s nice to be able to create art that is public-facing and that is interactive.”
Visitors of the downtown core have shown mostly positive reactions to the box, pointing out the kindness of the messages.
“I think it’s really sweet where you can put a really nice note for the next person to listen and for me, I feel like it would make my day,” said 19-year-old University of Ottawa student Dora Long. “I think it’s really creative that this is like a way that we can connect people to get together and stuff like that, so I think it’s really cool.”
Others have suggested the volume on the speaker of the boxes is too low and difficult to hear.
“I love the idea, but the execution needs some work because they can’t hear a thing,” said Alan Lori, 49. “I love the forward thinking, love the vision, love the interactive, but make it work.”
The Awesome Box can be found at multiple locations, including the OAG, the National Art Gallery, the Ottawa School of Art and next to the Ottawa sign in ByWard Market.
