Davis Square T Tiles

[daviststop.livejournal.com]

Every time I walk through the Davis T stop I wonder what happened to all the people who made those tiles (I grew up here, so I knew some of them). I decided to try to find out and collect their stories. If you're interested, and if you want to help find them, check out davissquaretilesproject.com. (If you know someone who made a tile, please let them know!)

Comments

[ron_newman]

This is a way cool idea.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Seconded. I demand you report back.

you demand?

[mrsdollylevi.livejournal.com]

Isn't the point that the OP has a website so you can check in on it and he/she doesn't need to report back to you?

Re: you demand?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I don't think that was there when I wrote this comment...

Re: you demand?

[mrsdollylevi.livejournal.com]

It was there from the beginning

Re: you demand?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Oh.

Turns out you're right! :-)

[mmancuso.livejournal.com]

Especially interesting would be the skunk-with-"cloud" artist, if we can charm her into admitting having made it.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Hiroko where are you?

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

Awesome idea! My daughter and I love these tiles. When she was a toddler, we used to walk to the station just to look at the tiles. My faves are the bunny ones, naturally :-)

interview

[daviststop.livejournal.com]

Don't know if this would work, but I was thinking it would be fun if kids interviewed some of the people who made the tiles way back when they were kids. Don't know how old your daughter is, but maybe she'd be interested in participating.

thanks for the comment!

Re: interview

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

Alas, my daughter is only 5, but you've got another good idea brewing there.... maybe a teacher or two at one of the schools would be interested to develop a class project around it. Are you, or do you know of, a parent of school-age kids who could broach the idea to a PTA member or teacher?

Re: interview

[daviststop.livejournal.com]

Good idea - I'll ask around!

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

i third or fourth or whatever number that this is an awesome idea

[whaler.livejournal.com]

That is very This American Life of you. Awesome!

In case you didn't know, or the plaque doesn't say

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

Project artists/coordinators: Jack Gregory and Joan Wye, Belfast Bay Tile Works
(I have a pamphlet from 1985 about the art along the Red Line Northwest Extension.. thanks to my Public Arts class in grad school!)

Re: In case you didn't know, or the plaque doesn't say

[daviststop.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've actually talked to Jack a little when we first started working on this, but I'm looking for more info on the MBTA art from that era. Any chance I could get a copy of that pamphlet sometime?

Arts on the Line pamphlet

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'd be glad to loan it to you! Write to me at: jplayer at rcn d0t com.

[jenskot.livejournal.com]

That is so cool! I've seen those tiles for years, but I'm such a self-absorbed commuter it never occurred to me they were done decades ago until I looked at the kids' names ("Brenda?")... :)

First one

[daviststop.livejournal.com]

The first tile is done, check out http://davissquaretilesproject.com/tile/debbie-viveiros

[ron_newman]

I strongly urge you to send this request to the Somerville Arts Council e-mail list, and to contact both of our local weekly newspapers. I bet they would help you publicize it. Even the Boston Globe North Weekly might be interested, since Somerville people often move out into other suburbs in their delivery area. (Billerica used to be especially well-known as a migration destination for people growing up in Somerville.)

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

[elements.livejournal.com]

Just reminding you to post this on Somerville Voices - and nice to finally meet you in person. The tile-maker (landlord of friends) I was telling you about is Spiridoula, last name starts with a D, and turns out her brother also did a tile. They're going to ask her to join up. When we were talking after I chatted with you, one of my friends had the idea that you might also want to create a PDF flier for people to download and hand out to people who are tile-makers or their relatives, for folks who aren't online as much or for, ie, parents of the tile-makers who may never have gotten online.

~ Erica