PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The large mural taking shape on the Shipton Building on North Street is the work of Silvia Lopez Chavez.

 

The artist was commissioned through the Let It Shine! Public Art Partnership and is funded by a MassDevelopment Transformative Development Initiative Creative Catalyst Grant.

 

The partnership will celebrate Chavez's mural along with four additional new murals on Saturday, Sept. 9, with a community celebration "Let It Shine! A Celebration of Public Art." 

 

The day will feature self-guided tours of the mural sites and the Let It Shine! Block Party from noon to 6 at Palace Park on North Street, from which attendees will have a full view of Chavez's completed mural. The party will also feature live music, community art making, food vendors, and a beer garden.

 

She began the colorful mural last week and it is fast coming to fruition. 

 

According to a press release, the artist has taken "inspiration from the spirit of visionary women coming together with joy to imagine and create a bright future for Pittsfield." The two figures are embracing and are donned in colorful textiles juxtaposed with geometric shapes and patterns in the background, including bunting flags. The work is designed to connect the building and downtown's historical tradition of bunting decorations and a bright yellow paper plane "gives a nod to the city’s history of paper and textile mills, as well as plane engineering and manufacturing."

 

Overall, the mural hopes to uplift viewers with a message of welcome and inclusion, celebrating the beautiful diversity of Pittsfield's community today, according to the release from Downtown Pittsfield Inc. 

 

Chavez is a Dominican-American artist whose community-centered murals form connections across disciplines and cultural boundaries and who "uses joy" as an act of resistance and celebration. She is a Neighborhood Salon Luminary at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and was awarded the New England Foundation for the Arts Leadership in Public Art award in 2021). Her commissions include the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Google HQ in California, SeaWalls Boston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Twitter, and Northeastern University. 

 

Artist residencies include Vermont Studio Center, Haystack, and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a alumna of Altos de Chavon School of Art and Design in the Dominican Republic and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. 

 

The Let It Shine! Public Art Partnership is a group of Pittsfield-based community members who have formed to organize public art and revitalization on North Street, empowered by organizing efforts through MassDevelopment's TDI, which since 2019 has awarded $4.4 million to create and administer arts-based programming in Gateway Cities. 

 

Visit downtownpittsfield.com or follow @DowntownPittsfield on Facebook and Instagram for Block Party updates.