Public art | Arts & Culture | Mill River District | Site Projects New Haven
Vanesha Warden and Rochelle McCain.
A few months ago, Rochelle McCain and her daughter Anaya started looking forward to their morning commutes to Cold Spring School. Each time they made their way down Chapel Street, they studied the side of a warehouse, where a blank wall had started to burst into color. Before long, it was packed with an array of bright colors, shapes and gradients that fostered her daughter’s love for art.
Music, fun, and vibes were all present last Sunday at the corner of Chapel and East streets, as public art practitioners and enthusiasts celebrated the unveiling of a new mural from Baltimore-based artists Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn. A collaboration with the public art nonprofit Site Projects New Haven, the mural channels the work and history of artists Josef Albers and Sol Lewitt, while adding a flair that is the artists’ own.
Accompanying the unveiling was a small fair with nonprofits like CitySeed, Lost in New Haven, and independent artists and thrift store vendors. Read more about the mural here and here.
“Spending time in one location, day in day out, it's pretty fun just getting to talk to the same people every day, and seeing how the mural progresses,” Unterhalter said. “It's an interesting place, because there's not a lot of houses around here, [but] as the mural got further along, everybody was just like, ‘Stop,’ roll down their windows, and be like, ‘Great job.’ You get to know people and the place.”
Nicholas Mayne, Jessie Unterhalter, and Katey Truhn.
Spreading joy throughout U.S. cities is a full time job for Unterhalter and Truhn, who are more commonly known as the public art dream team Jessie and Katey. Earlier this fall, the pair started work on the building, a warehouse owned by Elm City Industrial Properties, drawing inspiration from artists' work and approach in what is now known as color field painting. While they worked 12 to 13 hour work days, both credited the support of community members to keep them motivated.
Some of that community came out Sunday to support the final vision. Taking in the festivities were friends Oliva and Sam (who declined to give their last names), who met in art school and have stayed in touch ever since. Sam is an animator and freelance illustrator while Olivia works at the neighborhood plant store Bark and Vine. After hearing about the event, Olivia decided to come out and dragged Sam along for the ride.
Both are fervent supporters of public art. Olivia stressed the importance of an art curriculum, saying that “it well rounds a student and a community.”
“There's definitely not a lot of access to art and I feel like our education is really important,” she said. “I feel like art departments and public school systems are the first to be cut.”
Holding an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, Sam agreed.
“A lot of art galleries and a lot of fine art is sort of gatekept from the community, whether behind pay walls or it's just not really advertised that well,” he said. “But having a big mural like this that you can see from the highway even; it really gets people, engaged.”
Basking under the warm autumn sun, Lovelind Richards couldn’t fight the infectious beat by DJ Handsome. Sauntering onto the sidewalk-turned-dancefloor, Richards glided towards Maria Kayne, toting a bright orange pumpkin hat. The two immediately hit off, getting caught in the groove and showing the audience how it’s done.
“It's beautiful, really nice to see the community come together and stay,” they said. “ It's really nice dancing [with] people who just want to be in the same” space.
For Richards, the event was more than just good vibes: it showcased the unity and community of the Elm City, something they said they have seen throughout residing here for a decade. After coming to New Haven to strengthen their craft of music, they blossomed as the lead singer of the indie band Love n’ Co. Sunday, they encouraged others to take time to view the art scene.
“The power that we all collectively come together like at any time, that's really beautiful and it’s so magical,” they said.
Nearby, McCain recalled her daughter’s enthusiasm for the mural, from talking about the art piece with her kindergarten classmates to the joy she took in seeing its evolution. Anaya was so infatuated with the piece that McCain and the family made a trip down to Atlanta to see Unterhalter and Truhn’s other installations.
“There's so much vibrancy in art and how people express themselves, and so wanting her to see the different facets [is important] and that public art, it can be just as impactful, just as moving, just as inspirational,” she said. “And I know that Jessie and Katey have inspired a bunch of kids.”
“They're on the path to two different schools, so these kids have watched as their community has changed, and there's just this really vibrant piece that they get to look at every day.”
McCain and her family weren’t the only ones to delight in the mural: she brought along her friend Vanesha Warden and her daughter. Being from New Haven, Warden admitted she was skeptical to come out here after McCain extended an invitation, not expecting much from the event.
“I wasn't anticipating it to look like anything, because, like, I've been over in this area and I'm like, ‘Okay, girl! Yeah sure, I’ll be there!’ And then when I turned the corner it took my breath, because I would have never thought that someone else would look at that space and think that is what goes there.”
As Warden and McCain watched their daughters bust a move, their rambunctious energy was as loud as the colors on the wall. An instructor at Xtreme Hip Hop With Phil, Warden said she couldn’t help but imagine leading a step aerobics class in front of the mural.
Warden also touched on the city’s gentrification, noting the struggle between claiming ownership of a space and the accepting new ideas and new influences.
“I feel a renewed energy of what the city can be,” she said. “My little baby, when she's over there, this is her first time being in this area … sometimes it actually does take for others to come in and reimagine the space. And either you're going to be stuck in the past, which wasn't that great, or you’re gonna be like, ‘That's how it was when I was a child.’”