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Two people wearing masks standing in front of scaffolding with artwork on it.
Program Partners The Arts Top Story 

Public Art Project on View at Fulton and Chelsea-Elliott Houses

LaToya

A new outdoor public art exhibition, “Intertwining Colors,” is now on view across 370 feet of construction scaffolding at Fulton Houses and Chelsea-Elliott Houses. The art features hand-painted murals with portraits of 60 residents from both NYCHA developments.

“Intertwining Colors” is part of an ongoing artist fellowship program, “Bridging the Divide,” through ArtBridge, a non-profit arts organization, in partnership with NYCHA, and made possible through the City Canvas pilot program. The pilot is an initiative of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs to allow visual art to be installed temporarily onto scaffolding to improve the pedestrian experience and increase opportunities for artists to present art relevant to the communities where it is installed.

“Intertwining Colors” is sponsored by Facebook Open Arts, a multidisciplinary program that builds community through creativity, and locally supported by the Hudson Guild, a multi-service community agency serving the Chelsea neighborhood. The mural stretches across 55 panels and can be viewed at multiple sites along 17th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues at Fulton Houses, and 26th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues at Chelsea-Elliott Houses, next to the Hudson Guild’s Elliott Center. The art will be displayed until June 2021.

The two artists who created the mural are Hisham Akira Bharoocha and Maria Lupianez. Ms. Lupianez, a resident of Chelsea-Elliott, was selected for this project by a panel of local community members and ArtBridge, who were drawn to her realistic paintings of people in everyday moments. In this exhibition, she captured the personalities and positive energy of 60 residents at Chelsea-Elliott and Fulton. Hisham Akira Bharoocha, a former Facebook Open Arts artist-in-residence, is known for his use of color and attention to detail, and his contributions to community-oriented public artworks. His work considers each subject’s personality based on surveys they filled out, and the artwork projects their qualities in the intertwining shapes and colors surrounding them.

Artists Hisham Akira Bharoocha and Maria Lupianez created the mural. Ms. Lupianez is a Chelsea-Elliott resident.

The artists led a series of virtual art-making workshops at the Hudson Guild in mid-January for neighborhood children ages 6 to 18. The student art will be displayed in the windows of the Hudson Guild and the Fulton Community Center. 

ArtBridge’s “Bridging the Divide” fellowship features the work of current or past NYCHA residents, in addition to local artists. The artists and themes chosen for each project were selected through a months-long participatory design process, where community liaisons selected from the local NYCHA development facilitated conversations on the themes that public housing residents would like to see portrayed in the artwork. Artwork has already been installed at Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn, and will also be displayed at Jacob Riis Houses in the Lower East Side and Mitchel Houses in the South Bronx.