As the inauguration of Boston University’s 11th president Melissa Gilliam occurred, another commencement took place on Comm. Ave. during BU’s Alumni Weekend activities.
Nestled between Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and the Vintage Underground in West Campus is the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, a professional theater that focuses on developing original plays by Boston artists. On Friday, the theater unveiled a new mural at its entranceway with a public celebration that featured guest speakers and a selection of empanadas, arepas and yuca croquettes for attendees.
The mural, funded by grants from the BU Arts Initiative and the Mass Cultural Council, depicts a black box theater stage set with BPT founder Derek Walcott’s hands outstretched towards the building’s entrance, followed by an array of brightly-colored patterns.
Megan Sandberg-Zakian, artistic director of BPT, said the mural’s inauguration represents the expression of the group’s work to outsiders.
“It marks the beginning of showing what we do on the outside, in addition to doing it on the inside,” she said.
Sandberg-Zakian said the mural conveys both the BPT’s dedication to producing new plays while also welcoming the surrounding community.
“We’re showing them the welcome, the invitation, the fact that there’s a home for new plays in this building,” she said. “We’re showing the fact that there’s an interest in bringing folks from the street inside to see what we’re doing.”
Following the BU presidential inauguration, Elana Harris, interim managing director for the BU Arts Initiative, said she is “excited about public art in general” and about the presence of more art on BU’s campus.
“[Gilliam] mentioned her goal [is] to have convergence of arts among other disciplines and schools and to really encourage inclusion,” she said. “I’m just excited to see what that really means and what that has the possibility to be.”
Darren Evans, managing director of the BPT and a BU alum, said creating the mural was “a bit of a journey” since the COVID pandemic delayed the plan a few years.
“One of the first things I wanted to do when I came here was figure out how to make our entrance more lively, more indicative of what is happening in the building,” Evans said.
Although the mural was completed in August, the BPT scheduled the mural’s unveiling for BU Alumni Weekend. Silvia Lopez Chavez, one of the muralists, said this decision was made because the people involved in the project are “big fans of celebration.”
“There’s already celebrations happening this weekend at Boston University, so why not tag along and have a larger community of people coming and joining us?” Lopez Chavez said. “I’m always like, if we finish and complete this, let’s make sure we have a party.”
Lopez Chavez collaborated on the mural alongside artist and friend Mario Ramirez, who was unable to attend the inauguration.
After doing research and walking through the space prior to starting the project, Lopez Chavez said she and Ramirez chose to honor Derek Walcott by painting an outline of the mountains in St. Lucia, where he is originally from.
“We wanted to continue this outline and turn that into a stage-like space, where these hands will come out, welcoming people into the space and asking to just join and come in,” Lopez Chavez said in a speech at the mural’s unveiling.
She said was inspired by abstract forms, rhythm and space when painting the bright patterns that channel from the stage, and she wanted to emphasize the diversity of the community that the BPT supports.
“This idea that comes from the black box like dark into light is also this idea of being able to amplify the creative voice, where it’s creating something that doesn’t exist,” she said in an interview.
Erika Selloux, an alum of the Class of 1989 of BU’s College of Communication, attended the inauguration as part of Alumni Weekend.
“[The mural] is pretty stunning, provocative and really colorful, so I think it’ll definitely grab people’s attention,” she said.
For Lopez Chavez, she said she hopes that the mural’s conspicuousness will attract more attention to the BPT’s programs.
“If [the BPT] has much more visibility now that the mural brings people in to ask questions, hopefully that raises the profile of the theater right here on the street level,” she said.
