2D to 3D to 4D in Lowell: A Day of Service
One of the groups, led by Nate Robertson, a MassDevelopment TDI Lowell Fellow, discuss the bustling area around UMass Lowell’s University Crossing on North Campus.
Originally published on The LOEB Fellowship website.
By: Barbara Epstein
The intellectual electricity generated in the Loeb Fellowship 50th Reunion weekend in October came to ground in a Day of Service the following Monday in Lowell, Massachusetts. Some 20 Loeb alumni and affiliates converged at Project Learn, an educational foundation directed by LZ Nunn ’13 and the locus of an initiative to promote the city’s vitality through public art—ArtUp. The Loebs were there for a deeper understanding of the city and to generate ideas and locales for creative placemaking initiatives in the Acre and Upper Merrimack neighborhoods.
This was the second Day of Service following an 2019 event at the House of Wise Words School in Tijuana following the San Diego-Tijuana Fall Study Tour. A day of painting and planting was so successful that the school requested a return in 2020, supported by an Alumni Council Grant, for help creating a master site and programming plan.
The recent Day of Service in Lowell capitalized on an urban setting with “great bones.” Lowell’s location at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord Rivers attracted settlers 10,000 years ago and contributed to its position as the principal manufacturing center of the US in the mid-19th century. When the textile industry moved south in the early 1900s, the city experienced a steep decline, from which it took 70 years to rebound. Following the 1978 designation of the Lowell National Historical Park—the first urban national park—the city has continued to benefit from historic preservation, heritage tourism, and the diversification of its local economy to include technology, education, healthcare, and the creative economy.
Over the past 10 years Lowell has developed hundreds of new artist live/work spaces and seen the emergence of dozens of creative businesses, galleries, museums, and over 200 annual festivals. It has also continued a tradition of welcoming immigrants, whose strong spirit of entrepreneurship is visible throughout the city. Students of color, especially from Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, make up 70 percent of Lowell’s school population.
A scaffold of strategic planning
Adopted in 2013, the plan known as Sustainable Lowell 2025 established a framework for development and a comprehensive shared vision for the future of the city. The creators recognized that the objectives for sustainable neighborhoods, mobility and access, vibrant hub, healthy local economy, environmental resilience, and public engagement could all be advanced through arts and culture that elevate the unique character of Lowell’s distinctive communities. In 2019, Project LEARN launched ArtUp Lowell with more than 40 local partners to leverage the city’s creative assets. The idea was to engage Lowell’s many diverse communities and install dynamic, vibrant, and culturally relevant art in public spaces.
An Alumni Council Grant that year enabled Johanna Gilligan ’18 and Kimberly Driggins ’16 to work with LZ to engage the community in envisioning large scale art in its public space. That was the foundation for the first round of ArtUp murals, completed in fall 2021 through collaboration with Beyond Walls, a placemaking agency from Lynn, Massachusetts. Local and internationally recognized artists completed 10 murals in 4 neighborhoods and on the UMass Lowell and Middlesex Community College campuses. Much of the art celebrates Lowell’s Latino, Black and Cambodian communities.
Further creative development is being fueled by the recent work of Mosaic Lowell, a collaboration of people, neighborhoods, businesses, and organizations from across the city. Mosaic Lowell’s 2022 Creative Economy Plan is aimed at amplifying the power and reach of the city’s creatives, its cultural offerings, and the creative economy that produces them. The groundwork in place includes 80 nonprofit organizations working in arts, culture, youth development, health, and education; over 150 restaurants; and over 30 festivals and events.
Day of Service
The Loeb team that mustered at Project Learn at 8:30 the morning of October 10 included Rob Lane ‘09, Ken Kruckmeyer ‘82, Stephen Fairfield ‘04, Pallavi Mande ‘17, Andy Reicher ’87 Affiliate, Tessa Huxley ‘87, Surella Segu ‘18, Armando Hashimoto ’18 Affiliate, Clair Enlow ‘02, Kathy Fox ‘02, Jim Stockard ‘78, Rob Stein ‘94, Lynn Richards ‘13, Etty Padmodipoetro ‘06, Barbara Knecht ‘93, Sally Young ‘22, Susan Chin ‘00, Charles McKinney ‘94, Washington Fajardo ‘19, Kathy Dorgan ‘02, and Barbara Epstein. For the brief introduction and framing of the questions.
LZ was joined by Adam Baacke, assistant vice chancellor for campus development at UMass Lowell. The charge: to devise temporary interventions that would make streets and open spaces more active and incorporate art and culture into changing neighborhoods. The entire team took a bus tour of the area and split into two groups for walking tours, with Project Learn staff Mira Bookman and Autumn Kleiner on hand to answer questions.
The Acre group, led by Jessica Wilson of the Lowell Planning Department, began at the Stoklosa Middle School and continued to the North Common, Murkland Elementary School, and Harmony Park. Nate Robertson, TDI Lowell Fellow at MassDevelopment, was the guide for the second group, which toured the Upper Merrimack neighborhood, where MassDevelopment has worked with the city on its Transformative Development Initiative. Despite the different geographies, some common themes surfaced in the groups’ subsequent planning sessions.
Planning Session Takeaways
All the visitors were struck by Lowell’s manifold advantages: beautiful historic architecture, waterways, and bridges; the rich history and distinct ethnic communities; and the wealth of existing arts programming. Some common concerns included risks of gentrification and resident displacement and the prioritization of vehicles over public and alternative forms of transportation. There were marked similarities in the ideas that emerged in the two planning group sessions.
Invited to hear the results were Project Learn board members Magaly Ronan and Brian Martin (who is a former city manager and mayor), city councilor Corey Robinson, Middlesex Community College president Phil Sisson; and Ellen Casazza, the owner of Curation 250. Both Loeb groups urged the Lowell stakeholders to:
Incorporate more Lowell-based creators in upcoming projects.
Execute upcoming projects during the school year to facilitate student-artist engagement.
Increase the amount of green space around the city to help eliminate heat islands and support wastewater management.
Connect the community back to its local schools to foster a strong support network for students and parents.
Improve pedestrian safety in densely populated neighborhoods, especially around school zones and parks.
One particular project idea seemed promising and achievable. Loebs zeroed in on the Stoklosa Middle School, which now turns a blank and unwelcoming face to the Acre neighborhood. The Loeb team envisioned taking ArtUp Lowell from 2D to 3D with a façade mural that unites the front entrance and the side ADA entrance and extends onto the sidewalk and into the street. The art can continue along the bridge beside the school to provide a bike lane. Additional new bike paths and parking areas would enable students to safely bike to school and help eliminate attendance barriers. Extending the existing community garden from the back of the school to the front will increase green space. Further, incorporating elements from the Stoklosa mural into smaller murals around the Acre neighborhood would help to knit the community with the school.
Additional high impact community project ideas included a Made in Lowell website, bridge painting and canal lighting, temporary parking space parklets, and an Edible Lowell project to engage the public in learning about indigenous edible plants, science, and cooking. Artful placemaking and wayfinding signage could lure visitors to explore beyond the downtown core.
The Lowell representatives expressed much gratitude for the ideas and energy the Loeb team brought to Lowell. Rob Lane, who was instrumental in developing the Day of Service and worked to organize it with LZ, pronounced himself satisfied with the results of the day, “It exceeded my expectations and LZ’s, both in terms of content and companionship. It’s great to all be together in a cooperative setting.”