Last year at one of the mayor's press conferences on local
improvements, longtime activist and neighborhood fixture David
Arinella took note of what many of his neighbors knew for a lifetime:
"East Boston is now 'HD' which is not ‘high definition’ but rather what we
call 'highly desirable.'"
To residents who battled airport expansion and fought for open
space for generations, East Boston was always a prized neighborhood with its
vibrant civic life and an impulse to thrive, an impulse often driven by its
geographic isolation. Everyone who claimed Eastie as their hometown
embraced the great possibilities, an outlook passed along from cascades of
immigrants dating back to the middle of the 19th century to the more recent
arrivals.
Across the harbor and at City Hall, many began to take notice of a
neighborhood that never had to be resilient because it was always alive — weaves
of families roaring with the ferocity of jetliners passing overhead. The
families cultivated the civic virtues with fraternal clubs, sports leagues,
public meetings and charitable events. The value added is priceless. Over the
past decade, real estate developers, high-tech millennials, artists and
entrepreneurs streamed to Noddle's Island. The breathtaking Piers Park and East
Boston Greenway completed the puzzle of passive and recreative parkland long
missing. Now cultural institutions are —literally and figurately — crossing
the harbor to take a stake in the East Boston's future.
This week the Institute of Contemporary
Art, fulfilling an aspiration of players on both sides of the harbor, cut the
ribbon to its new outpost announced to the world as ICA Watershed. The final product is the result of a two-way
collaboration between residents and the city’s arts elite, with public entities
such as city government and Massport playing midwives. By converting an old
sheet metal factory on Eastie's waterfront in the middle of a reborn cottage
maritime industry boats are still built, the ICA has cast an anchor that
connects downtown’s creative class with a socially dynamic neighborhood,
extending its mission to present and curate the cutting edge. However, since the foundations of the new
prosperity were established by the hard work and persistence of vision of residents,
it can be said that East Boston elevates the stature of the ICA, rather than
simply the reverse. But credit the ICA for its foresight for the watershed is
not just a destination devoid of context. The new space pays generous tribute
to East Boston’s maritime history, a short film featuring the stories of local
residents welcomes visitors. With its open area for artist projects, meeting
space, teen programming and a small outdoor patio with views of the ICA’s main
Seaport campus and Boston’s 21st century skyline. Admission to the
waterfront will be free to all, an incentive for middle and low-income
residents to participate in the creative groundswell. Mindful of the transportation
issues facing the city, the ICA forged a contract with Boston Harbor Cruises
for ferry services. Sustaining a partnership with the community going forward is
critical for local patronage. The ICA is relying on assistance from the East
Boston Neighborhood Health, the East Boston Social Centers, Maverick Landing
Community Services and Zumix, the renowned music learning center to provide
programming.
The June 22 event was punctuated by a display of photography by
teens who compose a panorama of East Boston’s architecture, people and settings
as it transitions from winter to spring. Expect more creative engagement from
local artists such as Atlantic
Works and others already established across the neighborhood.
The cavernous space is large enough for
the ambitious installations that are the ICA's trademark. The walls are
exceedingly generous. In her first Boston work, the inaugural artist Diana Thater seizes
upon the raw industrial space before her, the “great room”, with a thoughtful
multi-media installation that underscores the fragility of the natural world. "Diana Thater's strategies of intensified color and visually stunning
moving images will offer visitors an extraordinary introduction to the
Watershed and raise urgent questions about the impact of human intervention on
the environment," says Jill Medvedow, the ICA’s director. The work which deserves serious contemplation
was almost lost in the excitement of the opening. (It will be on display
through October 8 around the time of the neighborhood’s biannual Columbus Day
Parade.)
Exploration and movement have always been undercurrents in East
Boston life. Thater’s moving images, in
their own way, capture the restlessness and energy that has always made East
Boston and its people a special place. The
famous shipbuilder Donald McKay designed and crafted the clippers barely a mile
from the Watershed. A central historical figure beloved by later generations,
McKay was endowed with a great imagination that set sail ships connecting New
York and San Francisco in record time. It is entirely possible that the ICA,
cutting down the boundaries between East and South will sustain that
imagination.
Frank Conte is the editor and publisher
of EastBoston.com, established in 1995.
The ICA Watershed will open to the
public on the Fourth of July. Admission to the Watershed will be free. Preview
days for East Boston residents will take place on June 30, July 1 and July 3. For more information
visit www.icaboston.org.
