| Project Title |
Art Along 25 Sixth Street, Connecting Commuters to our Community
|
| Project Date |
2024-09-13
|
| Amount Requested Minimum |
$10,000.00
|
| Amount Requested Maximum |
$20,000.00
|
| Location of Project |
The Neighborhood Developers is requesting a $20,000 Chelsea Celebrations Heritage Grant to support artwork at our upcoming affordable property, 25 Sixth Street, which is a new construction project of 62 affordable homes for families in downtown Chelsea that will open to residents this July. The transit-oriented development will include 56 new units of affordable, mixed-income rental housing for families, and six affordable new homeownership units for first-time homebuyers. The building is located next to the Bellingham Square Silver Line Station and alongside the Chelsea Commuter Rail line.
The open spaces at 25 Sixth Street incorporates a walking path to a Silver Line stop from Bellingham Square. We are envisioning artwork on at least two sides of the building as well as the interior. A parking screen located on one side of the building will be 131 feet long and 11 feet high; a mural on this location will be visible to commuters on the Silver Line and the Commuter Rail. A second mural is planned along the walkway, which runs 169 feet long and 11 feet high; this mural will be visible to anyone walking between Bellingham Square to the Silver Line bus station. For this grant, we are seeking funding for just one of these two spaces – the large mural to be located on the parking screen visible to transit commuters.
|
| Time of Project |
TBD, likely the unveiling will take place in the afternoon.
|
| Is this a recurring project? |
No
|
| If yes, what is the time period? |
N/A
|
| Expected number of attendees |
100
|
| If a recurring project, number of attendees in prior years |
70
|
| Will your project utilize volunteers? |
Yes
|
| If yes, please estimate the total number of volunteers and the number of hours donated |
80
|
| Briefly describe your audience(s) and mission as an artist or organization. |
TND Mission: The Neighborhood Developers’ (TND) mission is to create strong neighborhoods, and to enable community members to secure a stable home, achieve economic mobility, and determine their own future. TND was founded in 1978 in Chelsea as a community development corporation. Over time, TND expanded geographically into Revere (starting 2010) and Everett (starting 2018). Currently, TND has 649 homes in our portfolio of affordable homes; in addition, 346 more homes are in our production plan scheduled to be completed by 2028, including 25 Sixth Street. Residents of our homes and others living in our communities participate in TND programs to secure supportive housing services, develop leadership and advocacy skills, contribute to community decision-making, and achieve a strong financial future.
Art Engagement Audience: For this year’s project, TND will implement a community engagement process for Chelsea residents to inform the design of the artwork at 25 Sixth Street. TND plans to replicate the community engagement process that we successfully implemented when TND utilized a Heritage Grant to create a mural at 1005 Broadway, a multi-family property that TND opened in 2023.
In 2023, our Art-Facilitator implemented six interactive art workshops focused on collecting input from Chelsea residents about what Chelsea means to them through words, images, and symbols. These workshops were targeted towards youth, young adults (aged 16-21), families, and seniors. They were held at GreenRoots (two sessions), Youth Elemento, the Chelsea Senior Center, and with tenants of TND’s Acadia property - all constituents of community-based organizations in Chelsea. The community input informed the design submissions made by four artists who were invited to submit their ideas for the “Welcome to Chelsea” mural at 1005 Broadway. The community input also provided key information for the selection committee.
For the 25 Sixth Street envisioning process, we will seek to partner with a similar group of local nonprofits to engage ~80 community members. Given their presence in the immediate neighborhood, TND will seek to partner with the Chelsea Housing Authority and La Colaborativa, who both have properties in the neighborhood of 25 Sixth Street. In addition, we will seek to partner with organizations that focus on downtown Chelsea, such as the Chamber of Commerce. As in 2023, we will also seek to include youth to senior-age individuals in our envisioning sessions.
General TND Audience: TND served 2,390 individuals last year. Our primary constituents are diverse, largely immigrant, individuals and families who are low-income (80% or less of the Area Median Income). Across our affordable housing portfolio, 65% of households are Extremely Low Income (income is 30% or less of the AMI). Many of our constituents are members of Latin American, Caribbean, North African, and Southeast Asian immigrant communities. 58% of our entire population served identify as Latino.
|
| Briefly describe the project that will take place. |
Funding from the Chelsea Heritage Celebration Grant will support the creation of artwork on one side of our 25 Sixth Street building – the open space for art on this side is 131 x 11 feet. When completed, the final artwork will be visible to commuters on the Silver Line and the Chelsea Commuter Rail.
To get to the final designs for this artwork, we will implement an inclusive, art engagement process with Chelsea residents to inform the designs for all of the artwork at the property. To engage the community, TND will hire an Art-Facilitator who will implement inclusive art workshops with a diverse population of Chelsea residents in various locations around Chelsea over two to three months. During these envisioning workshops, participants will engage in questions like:
• “How do you identify with Chelsea? What makes Chelsea your home?”
• “How would incorporate themes of Chelsea’s 400th anniversary into this art project at 25 Sixth Street?”
• “What would you want a commuter to know about Chelsea that would encourage them to get off the train and come into the downtown the next time they are passing by?”
After feedback from residents is evaluated, our Art-Facilitator will create a public Call for Artists so that we can select the final artist who will create artwork at 25 Sixth Street. Like last year’s project, we are envisioning two selection rounds with the final round consisting of 2-4 artists to choose from. For the final selection, the Art-Facilitator will lead a panel that will consist of 5-10 individuals who are Chelsea residents - they will make the recommendation for the final artist. Once the final Artist is selected in the summer, they will bring the residents’ ideas to life on the large, open space of the building.
Our unveiling ceremony, while celebrating the achievement of 25 Sixth Street and the final artwork, will provide an opportunity for TND to sponsor one of the Chelsea 400th anniversary events. This will be a ribbon cutting event with over 100 guests, including local and state elected officials, partner organizations, building residents, and Chelsea residents.
|
| Outline how you plan to market your project and the timeline you intend to follow. In addition, outline the audiences you intend to reach (be specific). You may attach an additional document if necessary. |
Marketing: TND is aware of and prepared to follow the acknowledgement, visibility, and publicity requirements if we are awarded a Chelsea Heritage Celebrations Grant . If funded, our unveiling ceremony will be part of the City of Chelsea’s 400th anniversary events and would occur sometime in September.
TND’s Communication Manager, Judith Garcia, will lead project promotion activities. We plan to publicize the creation of artwork, as well as the unveiling to encourage public participation. TND has many ties to local and regional media outlets and a very close relationship with the Chelsea Record. Specifically, we plan to market this project via social media (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn), blog posts on the TND website, flyers, and through meetings with our constituents and community partner organizations. We have full confidence that we can continue to garner local press interest via the Chelsea Record for an unveiling ceremony of the artwork at 25 Sixth Street as we did for our previous project at 1005 Broadway.
In addition, TND is routinely mentioned in other print and electronic newspapers and trade publications such as the Boston Globe, Banker and Tradesman, and Land Development. Building upon TND’s long history of coverage in the local press, we anticipate doing a significant amount of publicity around the unveiling.
Timeline:
May – July: Community Art Engagement Process
July: Call for Artists.
July: Construction completion of 25 Sixth Street.
August: Artist Selection and the Art installation.
September: Completion of artwork an unveiling ceremony.
|
| What benefit(s) will this project bring to Chelsea and its residents? How do you expect to engage the community? |
Chelsea residents will benefit from this project by:
• Seeing that their ideas for public art are brought to life by the Artist who will design the artwork at 25 Sixth Street, which will be a piece of artwork in Chelsea for years to come.
• Participating in a community engagement approach, leading to a discovery of sense of self, place, and community.
• Being part of a larger community group on a single project, leading to increased relationships with other community members.
We have described how we expect to engage the community in a previous section.
|
| Are you partnering and/or collaborating with other organizations? If so, name the organization(s) and their role(s) in the project. |
Key Partners: Key partner organizations who will likely be involved in our community art engagement workshops (we will carry these out at their locations) could be the Chelsea Housing Authority, La Colaborativa, the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, the Chelsea Senior Center, and Youth Elemento.
Art-Facilitator: To Be Determined. In 2023, TND recruited Kyle Browne as project manager. She led our 1005 Broadway’s community engagement art workshops and created a Call for Artists and the selection committee. In 2024, we will work either with Ms. Browne again, or someone of her caliber. Ms. Browne is an artist-entrepreneur and educator who has worked in the Greater Boston area for over 10 years, including Chelsea.
Artist: To Be Determined, after envisioning and completing a Call for Artists. The Artist is accountable for ensuring that the creation of the 25 Sixth Street art utilizes the resident’s envisioning for the project. The selected artist will have wealth of experience implementing similar murals or art installation projects in the community.
Architect: The 25 Sixth Street architect, Utile Architecture, has helped TND to detail the interior and exterior spaces for art at 25 Sixth Street.
|
| Acknowledgement of the Chelsea Heritage Celebrations Grant by the CCC is mandatory on all advertisement and promotions. How do you plan to accomplish this? Be specific. |
If TND is awarded a Chelsea Heritage Celebrations Grant, all communication about the project will acknowledge the Heritage grant and the Chelsea Cultural Council. Additionally, TND will list the Chelsea Cultural Council as a donor on TND’s website and in the organization’s 2024 annual impact report. This annual report is shared broadly within our community of supporters and made available on our website. We will also post news of the Chelsea Heritage Celebrations Grant on one or more TND social media outlets-- we use Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Our Facebook page currently has approximately 2,400 followers and our Instagram page has 862 followers.
|
| How will you measure the success/impact of this project? |
If the art designs of 25 Sixth Street are reflective of Chelsea’s rich immigrant identity and cultural history, then we will have considered this project a success. Below are other measures to determine the impact of this project:
Below are our measures for this project:
1. # of Chelsea residents who participate in the Art-Facilitator’s community engagement sessions;
2. # of art-related surveys completed by residents;
3. # of attendees at our public unveiling ceremony;
4. Observations captured via quotes of the Chelsea residents’ reactions to the mural.
The impact of this project will be immediate. The art is intended to set a tone for visitors to Chelsea that: (1) Celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Chelsea, and (2) This is a vibrant and colorful community, and this project represents and honors its immigrant history.
|
| How will the project be modified if the entire amount is not awarded? Be specific. |
If the entire amount is not funded, we may cut down the size/ scale of the mural; or delay the installation until we get more funding.
For every property that TND develops, we earn a fee. TND uses earned revenues to buy additional properties to produce more affordable homes, to add to our working reserves, and to invest in additional mission-based programming. It is this earned revenue that will support the project’s costs not covered from this grant and will help us complete this project. Given cost overruns at this property (due to inflation and a construction delay), TND’s earned revenue for this property has already been reduced. Securing a grant will enable TND to proceed with the first mural at the property during 2024 and to go farther with our arts budget to seed future art investments at our properties.
See budget for more information.
|
