Allan Appel Photo
Martin with Atelier Cue’s Ioana Barac beneath the overpass.
These old grey concrete and frequently graffitied highway underpass walls won’t remain that way much longer.
That’s thanks to grants that the Upper State Street (Business) Association (USSA) and other neighborhood partners just received to spruce up the concrete with light and color, design and art, and remind folks of how it used to be before the highway sliced the area in two.
That news emerged at the monthly meeting of the East Rock Community Management Team, which drew 20 people Monday night to its usual gathering spot, the community room at the mActivity Fitness Center on Nicoll Street.
Looking south on State Street.
John Martin, of the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op and co-president of USSA, reported his group, in partnership with the Hamden-based Arts for Learning Connecticut, has received a &7,500 grant from the Could Be Fund administered by the Elm City Innovation Collaborative.
The fund aims to support efforts that utilize art, infrastructure, and design to enliven and to link city neighborhoods. Martin’s project does precisely that. The grant must be matched one-for-one with local grassroots funding: That work will get underway in the spring, with painting inaugurated in the summer, and a ribbon cutting by the fall, Martin offered.
The grim overpass, which carries Exit 3 of I-95, is a main culprit in what Martin called the creation of a “dead zone”. for business and a visual and psychological cut-off between downtown the State Street business corridor, running approximately from Bradley up to the Corsair development.
September in Bangkok, the restaurant nearest the overpass, has supplied food for community meetings.
Although art had been tried before at this and similar locations, like the Humphrey Street overpass, those images washed away due to the materials, weather, and time.
“This time it will last,” said Martin, who, by propitious coincidence was met Tuesday morning at the Bradley/State corner by Ioana Barac, one of the principals of Atelier Cue, an art firm based at Erector Square.
Atelier Cue has applied and, she informed Martin, has been selected for a matching grant from the Could Be Fund to install a lighting array at the underpass — lanterns to be hung, strung, or cantilevered from beneath the underside of the overpass.
“Congratulations,” said Martin.
Martin said strategies have been percolating for years to address the problems of the overpass, along with the intersection, the parking issues for business, and the speeding along State that make turning out from Bradley dangerous.
They have accelerated since he and L’Orcio restaurant owner Alison DeRenzi have taken over helming the the grassroots USSA.
They include organizing some of the lots in the area to make parking easier as well as adding a few more two-hour parking spots on Bradley and the other side streets off State.
Martin, whose business is 25 yards away from the overpass on Bradley, reported that he has hired local people to clean up the streets and sidewalks beneath the overpass.
Now art and design are being added to the quiver of local merchants and residents, assuming matching funds can be raised. Martin said in addition to fundraisers and a crowdsourcing page, lots of volunteers will be involved.
He and Barac chatted about closing off a section of State Street for a fundraising event. Failing that, maybe Bradley would do.
“I see this as Step One,” said Martin.
Although ideas on the themes of the mural painting are still evolving, Martin said the images will riff on the residents and the businesses of the neighborhood, reflecting the present and the past, and maybe what life was like before the highway sliced through.
USSA
John and the organizing team have done remarkable work to reach out to neighbors and businesses to build momentum for improving this spot for pedestrians. The Could Be Fund team is glad to support them as they move to the next steps of their proposal: engaging with the state Department of Transportation for a partnership to use their underpass and working with the community to finalize their design.
As you can read about on our website, the Could Be Fund aims to connect neighbors and neighborhoods through art and space improvements in underutilized spaces, like the Bradley Street underpass. Focused around and between three nodes - the Mill River, Science Park/Newhallville, and the Ninth Square - a group of artists and community leaders came together to hold meetings, office hours, and coaching to solicit and review project proposals. In total, the Could Be Fund received 36 proposals from artists and collaborators in each of these hubs.
This week, the Could Be Fund is reaching out to projects that were selected to begin the process of site permissions, permitting, and additional community engagement to make these projects as welcoming and as useful as they can be. Funding was spread evenly between the three hubs and projects will be publicly announced as they near agreement with their sites and neighbors. If you have comments you would like to add to proposals, you can review submitted proposals and comment at www.couldbefund.com.