Local and International Artists Collaborate with East Boston Students to Create Large-Scale Murals Around Urban Farming and Food Security
A new public art project, ‘Harvest’
By Matthew Reid
JGPR
June 20, 2022
Excerpt:
The program began in East Boston earlier this spring, with students at the Mario Umana Academy and Manassah E Bradley School participating in hands-on urban farming programming and art workshops. Artists have now begun painting three monumental public artworks inspired by student input during the workshops.
Students at the schools have been engaged weekly in outdoor activities with educators, activists and artists covering a wide range of farming and creative exercises. ??The first class took place in early May, where students planted seedlings of the “Three Sisters” — Corn, Squash, and Beans — a method of planting a triplet of biodiverse crops with a symbiotic relationship,
originally used by First Nations people of what is now North America. In the following weeks, students have explored differences between processed and organic food using drawing, discovered the importance of pollinators and open space through storytelling and performance, and ideated on mural concepts with painting and watercolor.
The final workshops were then joined by visiting artists, which aided in the development of the artists’ final sketches for the murals.
