Now+There ‘Lot Lab’ project turns Charlestown lot into art gallery

Now+There, a non-profit which curates public art, has outfitted an empty lot in the Charlestown Navy Yard with new and exciting art for their Lot Lab initiative. 

A three-year pilot program from Now+There, Lot Lab aims to transform “vacant lots into vibrant, creative, and experimental gathering spaces,” according to the organization’s website. The Charlestown Lot Lab launched on June 7 and is the first project of the initiative. The artwork near the Charlestown Navy Yard will be on display until Oct. 31.

In collaboration with the National Park Service, Now+There worked with local artists to reimagine 115 Constitution Road. Just months ago, the space was empty. 

“The goal is to demonstrate what temporary public art and programs that are co-created with the community can do for future planning,” Now+There Executive Director Kate Gilbert told Boston.com. 

“I believe that creativity and art is essential for wellness.”

Now+There partnered with four artists who co-created the space with community groups such as the Charlestown Boys and Girls Club and Turn It Around, a youth program with the Charlestown Coalition. 

Now+There held community meetings to ensure the art they were providing would add a welcomed vibrancy to the space. 

There are three main pieces from the project, each made by a different artist: “Women’s Qualities” by Ghada Amer, “Knotical Waves” by Massiel Grullon, and “Stay” by Sam Fields.

Also, artist Kyle Browne curated the art installation entitled “Signaling” which prominently features a series of nautical flags hanging proudly at full mast. Browne worked with young adults at Turn It Around to add their vision to the space. 

Browne grew up near the ocean in Gloucester and was heavily influenced by her childhood with a nautical-obsessed father to create this project. Browne’s “nostalgia” for nautical flags allowed her to lend a knowledge of flag signaling to the project, and found a sense of community within the flags that others might have missed.

“It’s about communicating and creating messages and being able to share those messages,” Browne told Boston.com. 

“Big ships like to use nautical flags to signal to one another,” she said. “That’s kind of what that name, ‘Signaling,’ came from. So whether it is something out of respect or showing pride in the country they’re coming from, or it’s a sign of distress.”

Mswati Hanks, youth program coordinator for Turn It Around, an organization for kids ages 14-19, said the young people used the flag signals to represent their identity. 

“Many times, young people get either pigeonholed or you know, told what they should be doing or who they should be or how they should be,” Hanks said. “And I thought that an art-making exercise like this really allows the young people to be kind of autonomous and really represent themselves how they want to be represented.”

About 20 Turn It Around participants each made a flag that was special to them. The flags now hang from a pole in the lot. 

Hanks said it is “huge” for the young people to have such accessible and thought-provoking art. 

The art will be available to the public until Oct. 31, when it will be replaced with new pieces. Now+There will be in Charlestown for the next year and has yet to decide on a location for their 2024 installation. 

Despite being nearly four months into the project, Executive Director Gilbert said she often gets to see a new person experiencing Lot Lab for the first time whenever she stops by. 

An elderly couple once stopped to thank her for beautifying the space they walk through every day. Each time Gilbert passes, she said, there’s a new kid running loops on the ’70s-style  “Knotical Waves” painted on the concrete. 

“I hope that people are stopped in their tracks. Take notes. Feel like they are receiving a free gift. And that they’re inspired,” Gilbert said. “I hope that they’re inspired to bring their own unique talent into the world to support, again, a more healthy community.”