Tonight the fifth Cohort of the Now + There Public Art Accelerator completed their final pitches in front of a jury of their peers, community leaders, and curators. Four local artists, Krystle Brown, Eben Haines, Tanya Nixon-Silberg, and Ponnapa Prakkamakul, are each receiving $25,000 to make their ideas BIG and bring them to Boston in the summer of 2023!
The Public Art Accelerator creates a lane for early-to mid-career Boston-area artists to participate and shape the dynamic field of public art with cohort-model learning and project funding to create a neighborhood-centric project.
Cohort Five will work with a range of media, from installation to puppetry, painting, and performance, while engaging the tight-knit communities connected or living near their temporary art installations.
For now, here’s what you need to know:
Krystle Brown’s project will follow stories of migration, memory, and finding home. Brown plans to use found wood, stocked shelves, and bold colors to center ideas of connectedness and shared legacies in Field’s Corner.
From this familiar thread, Eben Haines is likewise concerned with home. His project in South Boston addresses how climate change affects environmental design in Boston (housing insecurity, shelter, adaptation, balance), laying bare the truths about domesticity and the future(s) we can craft for each other.
With puppetry and plants in Roxbury, Tanya Nixon-Silberg is focusing on bodily remembrances of joy, play, and resistance, specifically in Black women and girls, for the benefit of everyone.
Ponnapa Prakkamakul pulls historical motifs from the Downtown area, Chinatown, and Leather District, revealing deep connections between Boston’s industrial past and its current cultural needs.
Ponnapa, Krystle, and Eben celebrate.
Tanya celebrates at home with juror J. Cottle.
As they take major steps along their Accelerator journeys, the Now + There team, jury members, and community partners are eager to watch their projects transpire. Reflecting on Cohort Five, Curatorial Assistant Jasper Sanchez left us with this:
“Krystle, Eben, Tanya, and Ponnapa have brought intent, care and curiosity to every Accelerator workshops. They are bringing that same care into their projects and the communities they are working in, and I am eager for the public to see their ideas come to life later this year.”
Special thanks to the jury who provided generous feedback and wished the artists good luck as they embark on their creative journeys of co-creation: J. Cottle (Dunamis Boston), Yng-Ru Chen (Praise Shadows Art Gallery), Sabrina Dorsainvil (artist & N+T Board Member), Gabriel Sosa (N + T Accelerator ‘20) and Johnetta Tinker (local artist).
Keep an eye on the N+T Accelerator Program!
Read Announcing Cohort Five for more details about each artist.
Please email us your questions about the N+T Public Art Accelerator Program or these four stellar artists! We promise to reply on Instagram stories (and give you a shout)!
Watch for the next progress update from Now + There’s Curatorial Assistant Jasper Sanchez!
Header Photo: Ponnapa Prakkamakul holds a model of her project.