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Date: 3/21/2023
HOLYOKE — A community painting day will take place on April 1. Open to the public and sponsored by Nueva Esperanza Inc. and Cultura Co. in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts History of Art and Architecture Department, all are welcome to the community art mural project.
The event will be hosted at Nueva Esperanza Inc, at 401 Main St. and will start at 2 p.m. The project is funded by the Mellon Foundation. Colectivo Morivivi, a Puerto Rican women’s artists collective, has been working with the community youth to bring the mural to life.
Leading up to the latest edition for the city’s growing collection of murals, a youth workshop of 10 to 15 participants aged 13 to 18 were invited to take part in the creation of the future mural to be placed on Main Street. With the design prepared, community members will be able to come out and assist in painting the mural.
With the upcoming community painting day, the public has a unique opportunity to collaborate with Colectivo Mirivivi and be a part of the creation and installation process. Project Manager Chloe Soto said this event is a great opportunity for the community to come together for a creative project that can bring everyone closer.
Soto, who used to be the program manager at Nueva Esperanza, said the project came after the University of Massachusetts approached the organization about a set of seminars titled “Arts and Culture in the Americas,” being funded by the Mellon Foundation. This led to a collaboration towards creating a culturally relevant mural for the city of Holyoke
“They’ve come up with something extremely beautiful. We’re trying to keep it under wraps for now because we want to surprise the community,” Soto said.
Soto explained the community paint event will have the public paint on polytab material that will be put together to create the new mural for Main Street. The polytab material will be painted under the direction of the artists who are designating the material for different parts of the overall mural. Soto compared the process to a paint by numbers set.
Polytab is a non-woven fabric and is also known as parachute cloth. The material is very light, lighter than canvas, and can take on the form of the substrate it is being applied to. This fabric that is traditionally used in the garment industry is now widely part of large public mural art projects. After the different polytab fabrics are painted with help from the public, it will be placed on the wall and become the city’s latest mural.
“Everybody will have a little section they can work on. This is really about giving people community ownership over a piece,” Soto said. “People can drive by, walk by and say, ‘oh my god I helped create this,’ and we want to instill that sense of pride in the community.”
All members of the community are welcomed to join and are encouraged to bring their passions for art to help bring the mural to life. For more information,call Nueva Esperanza Inc. at 437-7666.
Soto echoed she hopes this event helps build the community through such a unique project to Holyoke.
“We want strangers to come together and leave as friends,” Soto said. “Building on that community pride, Holyoke is a very diverse community, and we want all the members to come and show up for this event. Show up and love and help pour that love into the mural and it will make that apparent for anyone who lays eyes on it.”