"Under 91 Project" Picks Up Steam
03.05.2014 - New Haven Independent
In their quest to permanently reclaim a grim concrete canyon that splits the neighborhood in two, Jocelyn Square neighbors are taking to the streets to gather data.
Canvassers fanned out around the Jocelyn Square neighborhood Saturday and Sunday to survey their neighbors about what sort of public art they would like to see in the Humphrey Street underpass.
The weekend effort was part of a push to install a mural that would permanently transform the barren stretch of featureless concrete into an inviting public walkway.
The endeavor is called the Under 91 Project, referring to Interstate 91, which divides East Rock and Upper State Street from Jocelyn Square and Fair Haven. Through the end of this week, project organizers will gather information about what kind of mural neighbors would like...
"Under 91 Project" Wants Your Vote
05.15.2014 - New Haven Independent
A ballot box at an Under91 Project block party and cookout near the site of an upcoming community arts project was stuffed with the aspirations, visions and votes of artists, neighbors, and project organizers.
Within sight of the I-91overpass on Humphrey Street, a long corridor of concrete walls mottled with fading patches of blocked-out graffiti and the weathered markings of time, neighbors and arts organizers mingled in Jocelyn Square Park and studiously examined mural project proposals by five finalists drawn from a field of 20 submissions.
After a voting process that will include balloting from the cookout and online voting submissions, one project will move beyond the proposal phase to actualization, pending a successful online, fundraising effort on the crowdfunding Indiegogo platform...
Campaign Draws Crowd -- For Art Votes
05.19.2014 - New Haven Independent
A ballot box at an Under91 Project block party and cookout near the site of an upcoming community arts project was stuffed with the aspirations, visions and votes of artists, neighbors, and project organizers.
Within sight of the I-91overpass on Humphrey Street, a long corridor of concrete walls mottled with fading patches of blocked-out graffiti and the weathered markings of time, neighbors and arts organizers mingled in Jocelyn Square Park and studiously examined mural project proposals by five finalists drawn from a field of 20 submissions.
After a voting process that will include balloting from the cookout and online voting submissions, one project will move beyond the proposal phase to actualization, pending a successful online, fundraising effort on the crowdfunding Indiegogo platform...
05.29.2014 - New Haven Independent
Ta da! Bright Big Wall.
That’s the name, at least for now, of the colorful, graffiti-esque collaborative mural that will enliven the Humphrey Street underpass beneath I-91 and connect the Jocelyn Square and East Rock neighborhoods.
The project, created by the collaborative team of Damian Paglia, Alberto Colon, the guys from Hi Crew and all brought together by local graffiti eminence Dooley, won the commission in a close neighborhood vote for what art work should liven the concrete wasteland underneath the highway...
Under 91 Project Brings New Life to Underpass
08.20.2014 - NBC Connecticut
The murals will brighten up the area and invite people to cross the border that is divided by the I-91 underpass in New Haven.
Under I-91, Neighbors Fill in "Love"
09.29.14 - New Haven Independent
As professional artist Ryan “Arcy” Christenson outlined an elaborate butterfly, a group of toddlers hurled paint at the wall and older kids added their own up-close touches—which was all part of the point.
The painting took place at an “Under 91” block party on Saturday, where community members and artists like Christenson picked up their paintbrushes and decorated the walls of the Interstate Under 91 underpass connecting the Upper State and Jocelyn Square neighborhoods at Humphrey Street. It was the latest in a series of public-art projects in which neighbors have taken back spaces lost to highway construction a half-century ago.
These news stories illustrate the story of Under 91...
Reclaiming the Concrete Canyons
10.27.14 - Yale Daily News
An explosion of color: The underpass is lit up by ecstatic strokes of azure, bright cerulean, magenta and chartreuse. Two large murals cover every inch of the inner walls. This is the Under 91 Project, a quest to transform the grim concrete canyon of the underpass that divides East Rock and Upper State Street from Fair Haven. According to Aicha Woods ARC ’97, one of the lead organizers of the Under 91 Project, “the differences are pretty stark between the more economically diverse East Rock side and the Fair Haven side, which has anecdotally always been a pretty rough area.”