An honoring of outgoing city councilors, a Gilman Square public art search, and a Somerville Museum exhibit on chocolate
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Shorts
Thank you, outgoing city councilors
An appreciation event for outgoing Somerville city councilors will be held on Zoom on Jan. 26, at 6:30 p.m. According to an event description, these individuals have brought hard work and dedication to their roles, and members of the public are free to express their gratitude. The following city councilors will be honored:
- Will Mbah, at-large city councilor for four years;
- Mark Niedergang, Ward 5 city councilor for eight years and Ward 5 School Committee member for eight years;
- Mary Jo Rossetti, at-large city councilor for eight years, Ward 7 School Committee Member for 14 years and 10 years on various Somerville school and PTA Boards;
- Bill White, at-large city councilor for 24 years.
Register to attend the event at this link. Participants are encouraged to keep their remarks under a minute.
Pini’s Pizzeria moves to Medford
Pini’s Pizzeria relocated from its Somerville location at 511 Broadway, where it had opened 25 years ago. The restaurant has moved to Medford, at the address, 336 Boston Avenue. It opened on Jan. 23. Visit now, and pick up a slice.
Gilman Square public art search
The City of Somerville, the Somerville Arts Council, the MBTA, and the Gilman Square Neighborhood Association are looking for artists who would create public art for Gilman Square, specifically for the MBTA’s Traction Power Substation Building. Artists are welcome to apply to the call by Jan. 28. The chosen finalist will receive $80,000. The stipend will cover “all expenses associated with the completion of the project, including, artist(s) labor and coordination, payment to subs-contractors, supplies, travel, equipment, housing, insurance. Final applicant is expected to fully manage the project with support of the Arts Council. This amount will be distributed upon completion of milestones noted in the final contract.”
“The structure is part of the new Green Line T station located at the intersection of Medford and Pearl Street,” reads a statement from the SAC. “Gilman Square is home to Somerville High School and City Hall, Mad Oyster Studios, and celebrated restaurant Sarma. The Gilman Square Neighborhood Association is actively working with the City of Somerville to define parameters for future development that include a vibrant arts community, greenspace, retail, and industry. This is Gilman Square’s first major public art installation and it will be highly visible. It should serve as an iconic beacon to welcome people to the area.”
To apply directly, visit this link.
The Somerville Museum presents “Bittersweet”
From Jan. 27 through March 26, the Somerville Museum will be holding an exhibition called “Bittersweet,” created by Santiago Montoya and José Luis Falconi. The show is an expansion on a collaboration they had developed in Colombia, called, “El Dorado Chocolaterie.” The Somerville Museum offers this description of how the concept evolved below:
“This reference to the foundational myth of ‘El Dorado’—that elusive city where everything was covered in gold, derives from the earliest days of colonization in the 16th century when countless explorers mounted expeditions in search of it,” reads the statement. “Over the years, the myth has served as an allegory for the ongoing search and exploitation of Columbia’s immense natural wealth, a symbol for get-rich-quick schemers who traffic in its resources from gold to quinoa, from emeralds to cocaine. Sure to attract the attention of critics and art-lovers from Somerville and beyond, ‘Bittersweet’ reimagines the elusive paradise of gilded beings long sought by South American explorers. Instead of gold, however, these explorers will enter into the subconscious world of sweets, turning the Museum into an enormous chocolate factory where with the exchange for a hot cup of cocoa will be the visitor’s time.”
On Fridays throughout February and March, there will be a Chocolate Stories Salon Series.
This article is syndicated by the Somerville Wire municipal news service of the Somerville News Garden project of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.
All Somerville Wire articles may be republished by community news outlets free of charge with permission and by larger commercial news outlets for a fee. Republication requests and all other inquiries should be directed to somervillewire@binjonline.org. Somerville Wire articles are also syndicated by BINJ’s MassWire state news service at masswire.news.
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Shira Laucharoen is assistant director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and assistant editor and staff reporter of the Somerville Wire.
