Sunset Corridor
PHILADELPHIA, 2022
With the support of the Added Velocity Fund and in collaboration with Mural Arts Education and artist Michael Konrad, we we worked on a 6 week summer program with Philadelphia-based students. We shared activities and creative experiences and reflect on light, public space and their role in creating places for the community. We worked together to enact change in a neighborhood through a long term installation in an underused and unsafe public corridor.
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What for?
More than half of Philadelphia residents do not feel safe in their neighborhoods at night. People prefer staying at home, emptying the streets and creating a favorable environment for crime.
To improve this reality we worked with young people in Philadelphia to activate a public space that is impassable at night due to insecurity. These young people were participants in Mural Arts' summer arts and education program.
Where?
It was decided that the corridor on Mt Vernon Street, which is normally perceived as unsafe and unusable at night, would be the perfect spot to transform into a community gathering place. It is a 120 meter concrete pedestrian corridor with two long fences, one adjoining Roberto Clemente Park and the other on the side of Laura Wheeler Waring Public School.
How?
LABORATORY:
LEARNING EXPERIENCES
The Mural Arts Education summer program consists of sharing practical experiences to approach the work of an artist. In the 2022 edition, together with Michael Konrad, a visual artist whose practice is an exploration between the urban landscape and reused waste elements, the Alumbra team and the participants of the program, we met three days a week for six weeks to carry out creative explorations around artistic light, everyday materials, and natural and artificial light.
COLLECTIVE
CREATION
During these weeks, we also did research, sketches, prototyping, site visits and met with community members to receive their feedback. The group also co-developed a concept for our final creation.
And near the end, we worked hard for several days in an outdoor workshop to realize the vision of the youth participants in the artistic and lighting intervention in the corridor.
What?
PLACEMAKING
A light art installation following the Sunrise-Sunset theme developed by the group during the workshop. It was conceived as a three-sided mural that not only gives visibility to the pedestrian at night, but also interacts with the sunlight, creating a more vibrant, thriving and safe place for the community at all hours.
Translucent PVC strips were used for the south-facing fences. These were woven diagonally into the cyclone mesh, creating linear shades of color that change throughout the day.
The floor was covered with a mural in which a continuous strip runs down the street from one end to the other, a sort of timeline that becomes a playful path. A series of sun and moon shapes were painted creating a journey that emphasizes the transitory nature of this space.
On the north-facing mesh, we installed LED neon strips that illuminate the space after sunset. Arrow shapes traced with blue and amber light point to both sides matching the bi-directional nature of the corridor and the Sunrise-Sunset floor mural.
You should be able to take a new
place and make it your own.
For the inauguration, we had an evening activation with live music and performance artists. Friends, family, neighbors and authorities were present and had fun.
Who?
Delayla (student)
This alleyway needed a little bit of love, especially at night, when you are walking through it.
Neighbour
This alleyway needed a little bit of love, especially at night, when you are walking through it.
Tai (assistant teaching artist)
I thought that the idea of illuminating the space was really great, especially since at night this is a very dark space
Alana Caldwell (student)
While we were doing the work, we were having fun, so it wasn’t just an ethic project, we were putting all our creativity and our ideas.
Thanks to the youth participants:
Alana Caldwell, Alfred Safier, Camille Parker, Cavon Bennett, Clarissa Lanzas, Delayla Foxworth, Jaydin Dorman, Jozelyne Moise Vargas, Kyla Odum, Maimoonah Zaker, Marcus Miller, Stephen Smith, Washika Tanha and Violet Fraatz.
ALUMBRA is a project by Colectivo Barrio
Iniciativa Ciudadana para el Desarrollo Barrial A.C.