.: PROJECT DESCRIPTION

.: OUR COMMUNITY

.: NEIGHBORHOOD CHARACTERISTICS

Real Public: Public Art Projects in Parkville and Frog Hollow
Call for Proposals

CALL IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUBMISSIONS.

Project Description

Real Public is an opportunity for artists to create innovative, temporary work in a public space in the neighborhoods of Frog Hollow and Parkville; both located in Hartford, Connecticut. Four artists will be selected and commissioned by Real Art Ways to produce public art projects to be opened in spring 2009.

Artists are asked to develop their work keeping in mind the urban conditions, community life, and the history of the Parkville and Frog Hollow neighborhoods. Artists are encouraged to investigate the physical, social, and environmental conditions of these neighborhoods. Previous experience working in public spaces is not necessary for selection in this program. We are open to a variety of aesthetic and conceptual approaches.

Our Community

Real Art Ways is deeply engaged with our immediate neighborhood, Parkville, and has a record of working with Frog Hollow, our adjoining neighborhood. Linked by a main street, Park Street, these two neighborhoods have recently begun more actively to share information and expertise, in particular regarding imminent streetscape reconstruction. Hartford’s Latino (primarily Puerto Rican) community’s political and economic power and social impact is on the rise. This is reflected in both neighborhoods, along with growing Brazilian and Southeast Asian populations, a well-established Portuguese community and many other people from various backgrounds.

Neighborhood Characteristics of Parkville and Frog Hollow

Strong Sense of Place, History, and Community
Parkville and Frog Hollow are well-defined communities whose residents have a strong sense of their place and identity. Both were developed concurrent with Hartford’s industrial growth. There are layers of history in the communities manifested in changing land uses, buildings, and patterns of immigrant settlement.

Ethnicity, Race, and National Origins
Parkville and Frog Hollow have an obvious diversity of cultures. There are many smaller, distinct neighborhoods within the larger communities. Clearly-defined clusters of strong ethnic identity change across time and location. Many waves of immigrants have transformed the neighborhoods in succession.

Class
Parkville and Frog Hollow each have a working class identity. For many residents, this identity comes through in a strong blue-collar work ethic and commitment to family, community of national origin, ethnicity and faith. This working class identity, with all its strengths, often goes hand-in-hand with a significant struggle to prosper.

Land Recalled in Place Names
Neighborhood place names recall natural features of the land that are now lost. Parkville recalls the Park River that in now largely underground and forgotten. Frog Hollow takes its name from the marshy conditions in the low land near what is now the corner of Broad and Ward Streets.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For additional information contact Kristina Newman-Scott, Director of Visual Arts, by email or at 860-232-1006 x113.

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photo by Bill Hackwell

RAW Specifics

In 2002, Verandah Porche canvassed the Parkville neighborhood as Real Art Ways' Poet-in-Residence. Verandah collected interviews with community members and transformed then into "told poems." She has interviewed life-long Parkville residents, Park Street store owners, seniors at the Senior Center, landlords and literacy volunteers, and many others as hands-on research into the pulse of Parkville.

Copies of Listening Out Loud: A Hundred Days in Parkville by Verandah Porche are now available for $10 at Real Art Ways.

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Our archive is growing to include the numerous gallery shows and public art projects which have taken place at Real Art Ways since its founding in 1975. Please visit our public art archives and read through some of the past exhibitions and keep a look out for upcoming exhibitions and projects.

.: Real Art Ways Archives

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