New Community Windows Exhibit Showcases Photos by Morville Seniors

Art is everywhere, made by everybody.

It began spilling out into the streets years ago with graffiti. More recently it’s started crawling the walls of coffeehouses, libraries, retail shops and even doctors' offices, all of which have become prime real estate for budding (and sometimes established) artists to hang their work.

And as I learned a few months back when I profiled the in Davis Square—basically a pair of windows that’d otherwise be used by CVS to advertise soap and q-tips—window display space is rapidly becoming fair game. The window on Washington Street by the South End Community Health Center is another good example.

Granted, the Mills Gallery (facing Tremont Street beside ) is already an art-specific space. But now the has begun making even better use of it with the Community Windows outreach project, putting community-produced art in the gallery windows during periods between the professional shows hanging inside.

“It came out of a series of Creative Conversations, which is an arts focus group of sorts,” said the BCA’s Cynthia Woo who manages the whole Community Windows project.

Woo said BCA Executive Director Veronique Le Melle participated in a number of Creative Conversations groups, each with a distinctly different focus.

The first two window exhibits highlighted artwork from kids.

“Our first two shows evolved from the knowledge that a lot of after school programs produce lots of art but they lack the space in which to present it to the community,” Woo said.

Community Windows launched with art culled from the United South End Settlement’s Children’s Art Centre – ambitious work from five year olds.

That was followed by a display from the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, comprised mainly of teens that were given a set of thematic parameters: personal values, petroleum usage, bullying, materialism, waste and pollution. We’ve come a long way from the Halloween window painting contest I remember as a kid in the late ‘70s.

The new Community Windows exhibit, which goes up this coming Monday, is built from the work of seniors that won a photo contest after being given a crash course in photography. All are residents of Morville House in the Fenway. For those unaware, Morville is a residential community providing subsidized housing for elders. It’s also available to adults of any age who require an accessible unit.

“Partnering with the BCA for the Community Windows Project falls directly in-line with the Morville House mission,” said Elizabeth Ross, Activities Coordinator at the housing complex. “Seniors discover new creative talent and have a chance to feel proud of their work. By validating their skills, it encourages them to continue creating even later in life.”  

And especially when you consider that the photography instruction they received was fairly basic, the work of the winning seniors is mighty impressive (see photo gallery). Ross has chosen a total of 25 photographs; see a list below of all the artists whose images will hang in the Mills Gallery windows from February 28 to March 17 (closed  March 4-6).

“Community Windows is a chance for us not only to show art that is most often reserved for private use, but it’s also a great chance to surprise the neighborhood with hidden talent in our communities," said Woo.

“Experienced Perspectives: Photographs by Seniors from the Morville House” will feature images by: Tatyana Menshikova, Pei Zhang, Natalia Linkov, Tianmei Su, Boris Dashevsky, Lily Zhang, Rong Ring Xi Michael Gregory, Barry Devincke and Galina Averbukh.