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April 17, 2023

Launch of 18-story mural, largest in New England, will kick off downtown Hartford’s season of arts

HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER Artist Michael Rice and Matt Conway, executive director of RiseUP, in front of a mural on the Bravo Supermarket at 685 Maple Ave., in Hartford, set for an unveiling at 11 a.m. on April 23.
By Michael Puffer

Hartford-based artist Michael Rice will begin slowly painting his way down the 18-story Millennium apartment building just north of downtown Hartford on April 18, descending on what is essentially a window-washing rig.

Over the following two months, Rice will use an estimated 864 cans of spray paint to cover the concrete side of the building facing Morgan Street and Interstate 84.

The mural will depict a child holding an open jar of fireflies escaping into the sky. The piece is meant to express hope and wonder.

Sponsors say it will be the tallest mural in New England, possibly the East Coast.

“I want it to be something the whole community can enjoy,” Rice said. “I think the mural, and public art in general, can add color, can add a sense of life happening. To me, it almost creates a sense of safety and community.”

Rice’s public art display will be one of a dozen large downtown murals the Greater Hartford Arts Council plans to sponsor this spring and summer in a bid to enliven the city and help in its rejuvenation.

The council is dedicating roughly $250,000 for the murals, tapping into a $1 million public art fund — called “Hartford Creates” — that’s backed by the city’s federal COVID-relief dollars.

Rev. Shelley Best

“People will see it as joyful,” said the Rev. Shelley Best, CEO of the Greater Hartford Arts Council. “They are usually delighted to see evidence of life in Hartford given what we all have gone through. Hartford is meant to be the creative hub of the region.”

The murals will kick off a season of public arts, including street theater, dance performances, music festivals and more, Best said.

Signs of hope

The council has engaged Hartford-based arts educational nonprofit RiseUP to organize the mural projects.

“This really is meant to increase foot traffic, to give Hartford an identity as an arts and culture destination, not only for Connecticut but the whole Northeast region, to bring people downtown and to tell the story of Hartford,” said Matt Conway, RiseUP’s executive director.

The painting on the side of the Millennium will cost a little over $100,000, Conway said. Landlord Shelbourne Global Solutions – part-owner of the building — and the arts council’s Hartford Creates fund are contributing $50,000 each, Conway said.

HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER
Artist Michael Rice works on a mural.

The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation is contributing another $10,000. Sherwin-Williams and Jerry’s Artarama are providing paint. RiseUp is seeking an additional several thousand dollars for contingency.

While the mural on its side will convey hope, the Millennium building at 50 Morgan St. has been the site of some controversy.

The Capital Region Development Authority had to write off about $5 million from a 2016 loan made to developers working to convert the former hotel into 96 apartments. The loss was a consequence of a 2020 foreclosure on the property by first-position lender DW Commercial Finance.

Shelbourne and Waterbury-based Axela Group acquired the building for $22 million in 2021, and announced an $8 million effort to finish the apartments conversion. But complaints by tenants of maintenance problems and lapses in building management have been featured in media stories. Several liens have also been placed on the property since last August, land records show.

Calling local artists

The Millennium mural will be the largest, but other impressive public art displays will shortly be underway in the Capital City. RiseUp has authorization to paint a 500-square-foot side of a public garage at 20 Church St., as well as an enormous cement wall on another garage along Trumbull Street.

Conway said another installation will project art onto a 62,500-square-foot wall of the Frontier building along Pearl Street. There will also be a series of smaller “Instagramable” murals throughout downtown.

The Capital Region Development Authority — which manages the parking structure at 20 Church St. — will have a vote in the mural’s design. CRDA Executive Director Michael W. Freimuth said he will be glad to have something to brighten the dreary corner of Ann Uccello and Church streets. He is hoping for a design that promotes the nearby XL Center arena.

“I’m obviously supportive of public art and believe that it’s a critical element of any ‘placemaking’ that is so important to downtown development,” Freimuth said.

RiseUp has been active in Hartford for years.

It facilitated artist Corey Pane’s 100-foot-tall “Just Grow” mural of a young woman in a yellow sundress watering flowers at the corner of Church and Pearl streets. That work was sponsored by the Hartford Business Improvement District and RiseUP, and is meant to represent the city’s emergence from the COVID-19 doldrums.

RiseUp is still scouting locations for other murals to begin in the coming weeks, Conway said. The group is advertising for artists based in and around the Capital City.

“Some of these will be Hartford-centric murals, so having someone with a Hartford connection is helpful,” Conway said.

Conway said RiseUP and the Greater Hartford Arts Council are hoping to raise endowments of roughly $2 million to help fund future mural projects and maintain existing ones.

“If all goes well, we are looking at a mile-long loop right in the downtown of public art projects that we hope would be done by the end of this summer,” said Amanda Roy, director of equitable arts advancement for the Greater Hartford Arts Council.

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