Dudley Municipal Center Finalists Announced!
Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Boston Art Commission are proud to announce the finalists for the Dudley Square Municipal Center. After a national search, the Project Selection Committee has chosen two Boston artists to create artworks for the building: Napoleon Jones-Henderson for the Wall Design project and Meejin Yoon for the Outdoor Sculpture project. In addition to showcasing exciting, site-specific work by professional artists, the Dudley Square Municipal Center will also celebrate the artwork of a Boston Public School Student, Clarita Stephens, who was encouraged to apply by her teacher Alisa Rodny.
“The Dudley Square Municipal Center will be the next great building in Boston,” said Mayor Walsh. “This is a critical step in the ongoing economic revitalization of Dudley Square, using the neighborhood’s past as a foundation to build its future.”
In early November, Jones-Henderson and Yoon were selected amongst a group of six finalists to develop public art proposals for the Dudley Square Municipal Center. They presented their conceptual designs at public meetings on Monday, January 20th and Tuesday, January 21st at Community Room at Central Boston Elder Services in Dudley Square. BPS students submitted designs for the 81’ x11’6” acoustic panel to go in the School Committee Room. Recently selected, the winning student will receive a $3,000 award for her design work and will consult with James Hobin, a professional artist who has worked with BPS students in the past, in order to finalize her proposal.
Acoustic Panel: Clarita Stephens
Clarita Stephens grew up in Roxury, attended Pilot Middle School in Dorchester, and now is a senior at the Burke High School, also in Dorchester.
“I have had art classes on and off in school. I am interested in everything when it comes to art. I love colors. I am also very interested in fashion,” says Clarita Stephens, who does not yet know her plans after graduation. “I feel a little shocked but grateful and honored that my work was chosen. When I was working on my piece I felt good because I was to be able to express how I felt about the city that I love and grew up in in the form of Art, which I also love.”
Wall Design: Napoleon Jones-Henderson
Jones-Henderson’s vibrant, saturated palette and joyful abstract designs will be a welcome addition to the new Municipal building. Henderson has installations at Rhode Island Convention Center, Black Falcon Cruise ship Terminal, South Boston, and Roxbury Community College. He is an activist image maker and educator, and he has been an engaged member of the Boston art world as well as the Roxbury community for over three decades. His sophisticated enamel murals and large-scale sculptures have gained national acclaim, and we are proud to add his work to the city’s public art collection. "History does not make appointments,” according to Jones-Henderson. “As an image-maker struggle is my key ingredient, the fuel that drives the creative impulse. Struggle is a wonderfully invigorating force for the artistic spirit. As I am concerned with issues of universal humanity, I struggle and agitate to create works that advance these concerns. Consequently my works are pregnant with images which strive to resonate as visual music. Roxbury’s various ethnic groups have a long history of music as a central element of life.” Jones-Henderson sees music as the adhesive that binds people together into a community. Music was also a key influence during his development of Roxbury Rhapsody. “It is indeed an honor to create an enamel mural that celebrates this quilted history of Roxbury.” He also quotes James Baldwin from Nobody Knows My Name “The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but rather, the reality of the force the thing contains." .
Outdoor Sculpture: Meejin Yoon
Yoon’s dramatic, contemporary approach to envisioning public art in Dudley Square promises to create a cultural beacon for the Roxbury area and will be a stunning addition to the City of Boston’s public art collection. Both living and working in the Leather District, Yoon, a Principal at Höweler + Yoon Architecture LLP / MY Studio and an Associate Professor at MIT, has been an involved Bostonian for over a decade. Her works have explored how technologies can transform architecture and the public realm, as well as how media can act as a material and a medium for contemporary art practice.
Describing her initial concept, Yoon states, “I am quite honored by this opportunity to create an ambitious public art work for Dudley Square which will act as a sculptural beacon for the site. The project through form and light traces the relationship of Roxbury to the city of Boston historically from one of its original three towns to its central position among twenty-one neighborhoods, creating a dynamic visualization of the site as a hub of flows through the city.”
Dudley Square Municipal Center
The Dudley Square Municipal Center will be designed by the team made up of local architecture firm Sasaki Architects and Netherlands-based design firm Mecanoo. The project will incorporate the façades of three historic buildings in a National Register Historic District: The Ferdinand Building at the apex of Washington and Warren Streets, and the Curtis and Waterman buildings on Washington Street.
The Dudley Municipal Center is located at the intersection of Washington Street and Warren Street in Dudley Square, Roxbury, and will serve primarily as an office building for some 520 employees from two City agencies: the Boston Public Schools, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s Office of Jobs and Community Services. The building will be approximately 215,000 square feet in size, with about 160,000 square feet of occupied area, of which 140,000 will be office use. There is a public meeting room on the sixth floor that will be open to community or other groups in need of a meeting space. Almost 20,000 square feet will be devoted to street-level neighborhood retail.
The Selection Committee Members
Ted Landsmark, President at Boston Architectural College
Tyra Sidberry, advisor at Fund for Arts at the New England Foundation for the Arts
Barry Gaither, Director and Curator of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists
Pedro Alonzo, independent curator
Derek Lumpkins, Executive Director of Discover Roxbury
Myran Parker Brass, Eexecutive Director for the Arts for Boston Public Schools
Nick Brooks, Senior Associate, in representation of Sasaki Associates and Mecanoo
Joe Mulligan, Deputy Director, in representation of Property and Construction Management
Karin Goodfellow, Director, in representation of the Boston Art Commission
Architects and Artists, Members of the Dudley Design Team at the Dudley Municipal Center.
Front Row: Francine Houben, Maureen Anderson, Alisa Rodny, Clarita Stephens, James Hobin, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Meejin Yoon, Alex Marshall. Back Row: Alistair Lucks, Joe Mulligan, Nick Brooks
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