Community Outreach
Sea Level Rise Mural at Umana Academy
Much of East Boston sits on fill, which makes it vulnerable to flooding from sea level rise. The Umana School, sited on Boston Harbor, is on the front line of these challenges. By 2050, its fields and playgrounds are predicted to flood up to 12 inches, twice a day at high tides, almost everyday (G-BRAG, 2022).
Umana has installed a multi-panel, bilingual (Spanish-English), clay-tile mural with information about sea level rise to inform the community and encourage planning and advocacy for nature-based solutions to this dilemma.
The mural was installed April 18-24, 2023, and will be unveiled at Umana’s Family Day Celebration at the school (321 Border Street, East Boston) on May 18, 2023, from 4-6 pm. In addition to interactive experiences, food, and music, the unveiling will feature Umana students speaking in Spanish and English about sea level rise, biodiversity, and community planning.
For more information on the mural and celebration, contact Lois Hetland below.
The mural’s nine panels (panel D in process to left) depict central concepts around resilience to sea level rise and flood adaptation. Six panels feature students’ depictions of the various plants and animals of Boston Harbor to emphasize the importance of biodiversity in sustainable and resilient ecological communities. A seventh panel shows the Umana community’s passions and values (soccer, dogs, bilingualism, inclusivity, joy, LGBTQ+, respect). An eighth panel shows how vulnerable the school is to flooding from sea level rise – a graph depicts 100-year flood levels above mean high high tide in 2030 (14”), 2050 (33”), and 2070 (55”), with an image of East Boston housing and the street flooded at those levels. It also has a birds-eye view map of the school and its grounds showing 2050 flooding levels of the fields and playgrounds at 6” and 12”. The ninth panel is called “We Can Adapt!” It shows a community planning group working on nature-based solutions to flooding that includes building affordable housing. The strategies are absorb (marshes), elevate (boardwalks and structures on stilts or floats), and construct (building barrier walls underwater and/or berms and dykes).
The year-long project was led by Lois Hetland, Professor Emerita, Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Umana’s middle-school art teacher, Ardis Tennyson-Loiselle (photo on right), her 3rd - 8th grade students, and their families have created the mural’s tiles, with help from many hands: the Cool Science team, G-BRAG scientists (Chris Watson, Ellen Douglas, Kirk Bosma), Umana administration (Elvin Argueta, Lilliana Arteaga), Beth Balliro and her Seminar I class at MassArt in Fall 2022, the Boston Public Schools Central Arts Office (Tony Beatrice, Amy Wedge), Saùl Nava (Spanish translations), Cathy Kelley (co-designer), Eduardo Pineda (Muralist), Paul Paturzo (lettering), the New England Aquarium’s Educator Guide on the Boston Harbor from the 1990s, Ben Ryterband and Janna Longacre at the MassArt Ceramics Department (firing of the 664 tiles), and Paul Clark and his team from Milestone Tile (installation).
