New Bedford Selects Artist for the Commission of Temporary Art at the Cove Walk

New Bedford, Massachusetts – New Bedford’s Department of City Planning, in collaboration with New Bedford Creative, announces the selection of an artist team to receive a commission to create a temporary public art installation to be located at the entrance of the Cove Walk on Cove Road.

A selection committee awarded the grant to Michael Medeiros and Johanna Hoogendyk for their project titled, “Tijolo e Luz (Brick and Light),” a multidisciplinary installation of ceramic, portraiture, and story grounded in the oral histories of New Bedford residents. Medeiros plans to create two brick structures, made of Massachusetts-dug terracotta clay, that will feature life-sized portraiture of New Bedford women.

Lead artist and New Bedford native, Michael Medeiros, envisions the project as a celebration of the history and experiences of the city which shaped his perception of the world. “My mother was employed in the New Bedford textile industry, and my grandfather was a bricklayer and decades-long employee of Revere Copper and Brass,” says Medeiros. “Both of them worked in large brick factories typical of the sort that once dominated much of the land-based industrial landscape of New Bedford. I grew up seeing the inner workings of those spaces. It’s shaped my aesthetic, and I plan to draw upon that architectural, industrial, and human heritage to create the brick and tile portion of this project.”

The commission is made possible through a $10,000 grant funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), Making it Public Program. The Department of City Planning and New Bedford Creative participated in NEFA program to bolster the City’s commitment to expand public art and utilize it as a tool for placemaking and enhancing the city’s identity as a cultural community while supporting the operating capacity of working artists and creating a sustainable platform for the continued development of public art projects.

The installation of the art will occur this spring. Further information on the project submittal and the artists’ biographies can be found on the City’s website: https://www.newbedford-ma.gov/planning/strategic-plans-initiatives/