New Craft Artists in Action are preeetty excited to unveil a new project that’s been long in the making.
Hard in the Paint, Harambee Park is a public basketball court makeover in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, the culmination of NCAA Team Captain Maria Molteni's Boston AIR residency through the City of Boston with the BCYF Perkins Community Center.
For 11 months, Molteni worked with youth and teens from the neighborhood, hosting after school workshops on art, athletics, public space and social justice.
The final 20,000 square foot basketball court mural, painted collaboratively over 2 weeks in June, exhibits shapes, colors and marks found in the students' own drawings of their dream basketball courts which were also displayed publicly during the painting process.
In response to the courts centerpiece "Boston's Got Wings" (originally painted by Redbull referencing their slogan “Redbull gives you wings”), neighbors were asked “What do YOU think Boston's Got?" Their answers served as a reclamation of this existing half-court feature. Such multilingual phrases were compiled in a community zine and referenced in the intricate court patterns.
Molteni organized and directed two weeks of structured and improvisational painting completed by a team of adult artist colleagues, hired teen girls from the Perkins center, and daily drop-in participants from the community. Chalkboards attached to the surrounding fence also invited passersby to sketch their ideas and submit “requests” for imagery to be painted in real time. The free-form painting language of the court activates the margins of the space and opens it to a wider array of neighbors.
The court was completed on the 125th anniversary of the invention of basketball in Massachusetts and the 125th anniversary of the founding of Franklin Field, now Harambee Park.
An excellent team of professional local artists and teachers aided Molteni in the final designs, painting and facilitation of open community paint days: Randi Shandroski, Kristine Roan, Kevin Clancy, Natanja Driscoll, Silvi Naci, Gustavo Barceloni, Ali Reid, Jena Tegeler, Xray Aims, Francisco Ormaza, Camila McCarthy. Special Thanks to Raymond Heath, Sa'mya Givan, Karin Goodfellow, Christian Guerra, Sharon Kavai, The Codman Square Neighborhood Council, Mr. Al, Troy Smith, Miss Michelle, Mister Sherman, Miss Kiya, Mister Kyrone, Miss Unique, Miss Charisse, and all of our amazing students from Perkins.
