SIFTING THE INNER BELT
Sifting the Inner Belt was a year-long public art and community development project that consisted of a series of interventions and performance-based research projects, which closely observed and examined, i.e. sifted, Boston’s South End neighborhood. We aimed to create emotional, conceptual and physical bridges between the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) and the Berkeley Street Community Garden (BCG).
This project was based upon ideas of audience participation, communication and political intention, and was constructed through a generative process involving dialogue and community engagement through specific efforts, including research and interactive performance art.
This project allowed us to develop multi-angled approaches in collaboration with individuals with a range of expertise.
“Inner Belt” refers to the ill-conceived and never completed highway project from 1948-1971 that would have created an inner beltway highway around downtown Boston and between the South End and Lower Roxbury. In the process of the failed project, hundreds of homes were destroyed and many families displaced. Yet, because the project was stopped, over one hundred gardens have sprung up. The foundations of these homes, the spirit of these families, and the legacy of the impact remain today.
RELATED PROJECTS
Nail Salon Exchange Program
The Weeding Room
Performance for Mapping
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2004-2005
Place: Boston Center for the Arts, Berkeley Street Community Garden, Boston, MA
Collaborators: Catherine D’lgnazio, Kim Szeto, Natalie Loveless, William Ho, Jeremy Chu
Support: LEF Foundation Boston, MA