The New England Foundation for the Arts announces Lemonade Stand, a series of interactive public art initiatives by Elisa H. Hamilton and Silvia Lopez Chavez, as part of the Creative City program. The next public installation, a collaborative pop-up workshop and exhibition of print-making and personal narratives, will take place Sept. 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Eliot School located at 24 Eliot St. in Jamaica Plain. The event is free and open to the public, and is part of Jamaica Plain Open Studios.
Sharing Lemonade with Roxbury Tenants of Harvard
Lemonade Stand, according to Hamilton, “is an invitation to the public to turn challenges into positives in everyday ordinary life. Both Silvia and I try to create work about the beauty of our day-today surroundings. Our goal is to interact with a broad range of participants who vary in age and background, especially those who have had little or no experience with interactive public art of this kind.”
The two began collaborating in 2014 on a commissioned mural, and chose to further their collaboration on Lemonade Stand by working with community partner the Eliot School, which helped connect the artists with locations for their pop-up initiatives – including a print-making workshop at the Nurtury Learning Lab on Bickfors Street in Jamaica Plain. Prints made at that workshop will be used in future ones, allowing interconnectivity throughout the community and the program.
Other initiatives took place at the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard in Mission Hill, the South Street Youth Center in Jamaica Plain, and the Franklin Hill Boys and Girls Club in Dorchester.