The 15 Ward Street Pocket Park transformed an unsafe dumping site (see picture attached) into a small urban park. Funding for the park was supported by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the Salem Community Preservation Act, and the City of Salem’s CDBG, with design by Michelle Crowley Landscape Architecture and Boscardin Consulting Engineers and construction by Anderson Landscape Construction.
A unique component of the renovation was the replication of two large murals that hung on two of the buildings abutting the park. The original murals were painted by community members in the late 1990’s and were replicated by Oliver Brothers Fine Art Restoration and Conservation in 2015.
In 2018, NSCDC partnered with the Peabody Essex Museum and the New Craft Artists in Action to do an art installation on the court called Tormenta en la Cancha, painted by Maria Molteni. For more information about Tormenta en la Cancha and how Maria Molteni collaborated with the local children while creating it, visit the mural’s page on the PUAM website here.
