Real Public:
Four Works of Public Art in Hartford, CT
Summer, 2009
56 Arbor Street
Hartford, CT 06107
860.232.1006
About the Projects
Photographer Margarida Correia has been working with members of Hartford’s Portuguese community. A Parkville billboard displays the Praia da Nazaré, Portugal’s famous beach. Street lamp banners on Park Street display album covers of famous Fado singers. Stores along Parkville play music from the albums.
Correia is from Portugual. Her work explores the relationships that people from her generation develop with things they collect and care for.
Satch Hoyt created a labyrinth in Frog Hollow’s Pope Park. The labyrinth, constructed from clotheslines, addresses the migratory voyage of the residents who reside in the neighborhood. The public is invited to traverse the labyrinth’s path.
Hoyt was born in London and is currently living and working in Berlin, Germany. The sculptural trope in Hoyt’s work is the acts on the ground, so to speak, of black experience.
Sofia Maldonado’s mural, on the Pelican Tattoo building in Frog Hollow, blends elements of female aesthetics and street cultures. Maldonado worked with two interns to create the project, including a neighborhood teenager from Mi Casa, a Parkville youth organization.
Maldonado was born in Puerto Rico. Now working and living in Brooklyn, her artwork is a blend of fashion trends, the Latina female aesthetic and various street culture elements.
Matthew Rodriguez has created faces on 77 trees in Pope Park. The playful characters, painted onto the trees, look out onto Hamilton Avenue. The trees were painted with the help of volunteers from the neighborhood.
Rodriguez’s childlike creations encapsulate urban anxieties while ridiculing them by standing out in stark contrast to their decaying surroundings. He lives and works in Austin, TX
Kristina Newman-Scott, Real Art Ways’ Director of Visual Arts, explains the artist selection process: ”The artists we selected for this program have a particular interest in working in the public realm, and their works simultaneously connect people to the art and to each other. Therein lies the magic.”
Self-guided tours, narrated by the artists, are available for free by cell phone: 860-760-9979. Free project maps are available at Real Art Ways, or online: realartways.org/visualarts.htm.
Past Public Art Projects
Real Art Ways’ history of commissioning, organizing, and presenting public art projects exhibits the organization’s commitment to community and to excellent, innovative art. Since 1990, Real Art Ways has originated, commissioned and produced 27 public art projects. Past participants in our public art program include: Rachel Berwick, Mel Chin, Karin Giusti, Lillian Hsu-Flanders, Liz Miller, Pepón Osorio, Robert Peters, Carl Pope, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, James Luna, Jessica Diamond, Danny Tisdale, Steed Taylor, Harrell Fletcher, Verandah Porche, Pruitt.Early, and Ellen Driscoll, and others.
About Real Art Ways
Real Art Ways is one of the leading contemporary arts organizations in the United States, with a record of linking artists, innovation and community. Programs include visual arts, with exhibitions, public art projects, and artist presentations; cinema, with independent and international films 7 nights a week; music; performance; literary events; community and educational programming.
Support
Major support for Real Public comes from: Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, Westside Properties Inc., The Ensworth Charitable Trust, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, The Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Art Campaign, The J. Walton Bissell Foundation, Sandy and Howard Fromson, Travelers, Robinson and Nancy Grover, The Wallace Foundation, and Real Art Ways’ Members.
Media contact:
Abigail Ohlheiser
Communications Coordinator
aohlheiser@realartways.org
860.232.1006 x 114
For more visual arts exhibitions at Real Art Ways, visit
