Brookley Flats Mural
Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA
TYPE:
Public Art, Mural
PLANNED INSTALL: Winter of 2025
ARTIST: Liz LaManche
FUNDING: Stonley Brookley LLC, JPNDC
Project team includes artist Liz LaManche, Stonley Brookley LLC, JPNDC, and Neighborways Design.
Brookley Flats is a new community destination and affordable residential development with five artist live-work units and exhibition space opening in 2025!
Architectural rendering of completed building with final design
Project Timeline
Sept – Nov 2024 – Collect community ideas, themes, stories, and preferences to develop DRAFT mural concept designs
Wed 11/13/24 – Online Public Meeting where we previewed three draft concept designs for feedback & discussion
Nov – Dec 2024 – open online survey for feedback and voting on preferred mural design concept
Jan 2025 – Online Public Meeting #2 to present the final concept for feedback
Jan 2025 – Artist develops and finalizes design
Feb 5 - Design unveiled to the public
Winter 2025 – Mural Installation
Our Process
Artist
Liz LaManche was selected from a pool of artist applicants based on many factors: art portfolio, experience with similar large murals, community-centric approach, and ties to the neighborhood. Examples of their work can be seen in our Projects pages, and on their art website Earthsign.com.
Outreach
Drawing on the community outreach of Neighborways collaborators, we’ve been able to canvas for community input through flyers, posters, an online survey and two in-person popups, talking to residents about what makes the Stonybrook community special.
Design
Taking into account neighbors stories and opinions, historical research and on-the-ground site impressions, the artist drafted a number of different design idea sketches, which got narrowed down to the 3 best for public comment.
Feedback
In a public Zoom meeting Nov. 13, we previewed three draft concept designs for feedback.
Based on this conversation, designs were refined and new ones created.
An online survey in December took further feedback and voting on preferred mural design concepts.
The Art! Process
These were the Round 1 choices: Based on a community design conversation, a second round of design choices was developed.
Final:
The final design direction informed by our community process, the Garden, unveiled at the Feb 5 open meeting, represents a synthesis of the favorite theme (Community Garden) with the popular aspects of the floral design: more color and clear graphic impact.
This final design includes elements of:
The nearby Minton Stables Community Garden with its characteristic “barn” and history of community action to get the space converted to a gardening site for neighbors;
local “triple decker” historical vernacular architecture of the neighborhood;
Garden plants and flowers, indigenous and cultivated;
A guitar symbolizing the importance of music in the neighborhood including local venues and a history of grassroots protest;
The turtle and strawberries symbolize local wildlife in the nearby Arnold Arboretum and Franklin Park, and are common motifs of First Nations people of this area.
We look forward to installation in winter of 2025 and to the building’s future as Boston’s largest affordable, arts-centric housing community benefiting the Stoneybrook JP neighborhood.
