Tunnel Vision

I had never ventured on foot into the Boulevard Tunnel until April 12, when Living Walls had asked for volunteers to help prepare the walls for an artist who was going to come paint a mural.  Since I don't drive to Cabbagetown or Grant Park often, the tunnel is more something I go past on the way to Caramba than it is something I go through.  I thought of it as a dreary place but not a horrible place.  But for those nearby, it was more than an eyesore.  It was a place that felt unsafe and maybe was.  Nicki Braxley, a Cabbagetown resident, decided to do something about it a couple of years ago and started the Boulevard Tunnel Initiative.  Since then, the city has replaced some railings and a security camera has been installed in one of the stairwells.  But the big leap forward was when Living Walls took on the task of turning the tunnel into a destination.  Living Walls -- an organization that does magic with the resources available to it, which are long on passion and commitment, and short on cash -- brought in the artist MOMO from New York to paint the tunnel.

The Boulevard Tunnel Initiative had organized a clean up and then Living Walls staff and volunteers showed up to prep the walls for MOMO.  There were a half-dozen or so of us there, painting with rollers.  I was only there for a few hours, but it was unexpectedly hard work. (Iain had spent the weekend in Athens, and when I went to pick him up the next day he said, "Mom, there's something on your face.  It looks like paint.")

MOMO arrived in town a few days later and began to work.  First the walls were painted with blocks of color, then the boundaries between the blocks disappeared, and then designs were superimposed over the painted walls.  An army of volunteers was involved.  I took off a day from work and helped one day.  It was an amazing thing to watch.

The project took a little longer than originally planned at least in part because of the weather; you can't paint walls in the rain.  But it did get done, and after it was complete, Iain and Caroline and I went to see it in early May.  It is an amazing piece of work.

Can art transform the tunnel?  Probably not all by itself, but as Nicole Braxley told Rebecca Burns, it may increase pedestrian presence in the tunnel, and that should help.  

After taking a few pictures that day, we walked up to Noni's for lunch.  On the way back, two men from Fort Lauderdale asked us if the bus that stopped at Boulevard and Edgewood went to Five Points.  We had to admit we had no idea, but pointed them toward the nearby MARTA station on Decatur Street.  It was only afterwards that I realized I should have told them about the new murals in the tunnel.  

Next time.