Nick Cave’s building wrap with community collages (Upham’s Corner neighborhood of Boston).
This building wrap, a temporary adhesive vinyl, is the culmination 15 workshops initiated by DS4SI and partner Now + There, with input from lead artist Nick Cave. When Now + There approached us to be a community partner for Augment, we immediately realized the possibilities and importance of including the community. To engage neighborhood residents, merchants, artists and families, DS4SI and Boston artists Destiny Polk, L’Merchie Frazier, Barrington Edwards and Wilton Tejeda spent four months leading workshops around Upham’s Corner.
We led workshops at the local library, churches, schools and community programs, gathering over 100 collages based on the prompt, “What brings you joy?” Each workshop fostered increased dialogue around public space, public art, and how joy is profoundly personal but also collective, shared and cultural. In addition, DS4SI and Wilton Tejeda brought a mobile collage cart out on the streets to engage passers-by who might not know about the workshops or the upcoming installation.
To us, these workshops and the cart served a dual purpose:
1) To have the community be a part of thinking about joy and see their collages and ideas on the building wrap at 555 Columbia Avenue, and
2) To make sure there were many ways that community members learned about the installation. When passersby saw it, we wanted them to know it was for them. If someone said, “What the heck is this?” we wanted their friend to say, “Oh, my son did a collage for that at the community center,” or “Wow, that’s my collage from church!”
This was particularly timely because locally, Augment comes at a time when the City of Boston has labeled Upham’s Corner a new “Arts and Innovation District”. The primary question for residents about the “Arts and Innovation District" boils down to “Who is it for?” In community meetings, this is reflected in questions about gentrification and displacement, as well as questions about if the arts opportunities will be culturally relevant and accessible.
In response to these concerns, DS4SI and local partner DSNI (Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative) have been mobilizing local artists, organizations, and residents to imagine what the district could be like if it prioritized local cultures, communities, and artists. To us, bringing Nick Cave to Upham’s Corner is a powerful example of what’s possible. Because of that, it was especially important to have the project involve and reflect the community.
The Augment Project was much more than just the building wrap. Collages went up in local storefront windows, at the sites where they were made, and on banners hung from streetlights. But the Upham’s Corner collages and building wrap were just one part of a complex project that also included:
An astounding ode-to-joy sculpture that Nick Cave made out of over 1000 lawn inflatables
The Joy Parade coordinated by Now + There, that brought the inflatables from their first home in the South End neighborhood to their second home in Upham’s Corner
DS4SI’s inPUBLIC Festival and the Upham’s Corner Arts & Health Street Festival that welcomed the parade to Upham’s Corner
Many thanks to our participants and to the community partners who hosted collage workshops, including Bird Street Youth Program, Boston Public Library Upham's Corner Branch, Cape Verdean Adult Day Health Center, Dudley Neighbors Inc. Annual Meeting, DSNI Annual Meeting, DS4SI, Fairmount Innovation Lab Re-union, Lila Frederick Pilot Middle School, Pilgrim Church Saturday Lunch, St. Mary's Episcopal Church and Upham’s Corner Main Street Annual Meeting.
Many thanks to our lead artists: Barrington Edwards, Destiny Polk, L’Merchie Frazier and Wilton Tejeda.
And many thanks to the funders who supported this work: Barr Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, Kresge Foundation and Surdna Foundation.
Last but absolutely not least, many thanks to the Now + There team for inviting us to be a part of this exciting and challenging process, and for being open to the learning that we are all doing along the way. Like the UC Arts & Innovation District, having Augment come to Upham’s Corner feels exciting and risky. “Who is it for?” still resonates in the process. We hope that together with the Upham’s Corner community, our local artist and activist partners, and the larger arts community of Boston, we will be creating public art that reflects and amplifies the joy in all of us.