Map This

Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform

About the Project

Community Engagement at the Gardner brought together Neighborhood Salon Luminary designer Nathalia JMag; local youth-serving partner organizations Hyde Square Task Force, Urbano Project, and Sisters Unchained; and Olin College engineering students working with advisor Mimi Onuoha to consider the exhibition Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform and to generate alternative maps of Boston communities.

Throughout the summer of 2019, Nathalia facilitated hands-on textile workshops with youth engaging historical imagery from the Big Plans exhibition, and community-generated maps as layers of aesthetic material. Map-inspired textiles were created during the workshops and were further refined by JMag. The workshops culminated in an outdoor, public processional at the Neighborhood Night Block Party on August 22, 2019.

An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment: a colorblocked top-and-skirt set in bold primary colors..
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment: a royal blue hoodie with a wide, dramatic hood.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment: a tie-dyed pink top-and-skirt set. The top has a large ruffle at the waist.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment: a pair of denim overalls with painted-over buttons and the word "colors" painted on the bib.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment: a yellow and pink tie-dyed T-shirt and colorblocked yellow and pink shorts.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment: a top with large ruffles made of recycled denim in various washes, grading from light wash to medium.
A close-up shot of a map-inspired textile with red and blue stripes obscuring the map beneath it, created by Urbano Project students.
An Urbano Project student paints details onto their map textile.
An Urbano Project student fills in hand-drawn sections of her garment with paint.
Nathalia JMag leads the second Map This workshop with Urbano Project, July 2019.
Nathalia JMag teaches Urbano Project students how to use a sewing machine.
An Urbano Project student works on their Map This garment.
An Urbano Project student works on their Map This garment.
Students work on their Map This garments.
Urbano Project students test the fit of their Map This garments.
Nathalia JMag leads the first Map This workshop with Hyde Square Task Force, June 2019.
Nathalia JMag helps two Hyde Square Task Force Students with their sewing project.
Hyde Square Task Force students dye fabrics as part of their Map This workshop.
Close up of a student outlining their map. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Two Hyde Square Task Force students work together to check the fit of their garments. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Hyde Square Task Force students work on their Map This garments. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Urbano Project students learn about print-making. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
An Urbano Project student carves a linoleum tile, the first step in print-making. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
More carving. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
An Urbano Project student rolls paint over a linoleum tile, the next step in print-making. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
A wide shot of students working in the Urbano Project space. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Nathalia JMag launches the Map This workshop at Urbano Project. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Some finished linoleum tiles, ready for print-making. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
L-R: Mimi Onuoha, Athmika Senthilkumar, Ana Krishnan, Vanessa Lee, and Rhea Vedro at the final presentation of Olin College works.
Olin College Students on a tour of the Museum with Rhea Vedro, Director of Community Engagement
Students participate in a class discussion about Map This.
Students participate in a class discussion about Map This.
Olin College Academic Advisor Mimi Onuoha leads a class discussion about Map This.
Nathalia JMag teaches Urbano Project students how to use a sewing machine.
A close-up shot of a rainbow map-inspired textile created by Urbano Project students.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment.
An Urbano Project student shows off their finished Map This garment.
A close-up shot of a rainbow map-inspiA close-up shot of a map-inspired textile with red and blue stripes obscuring the map beneath it, created by Urbano Project students. red textile created by Urbano Project students.
An Urbano Project student paints details onto their map textile.
An Urbano Project student fills in hand-drawn sections of her garment with paint.
Nathalia JMag leads the second Map This workshop with Urbano Project, July 2019.
Nathalia JMag teaches Urbano Project students how to use a sewing machine.
An Urbano Project student works on their Map This garment.
An Urbano Project student works on their Map This garment.
Students work on their Map This garments.
Urbano Project students test the fit of their Map This garments.
Nathalia JMag leads the first Map This workshop with Hyde Square Task Force. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Nathalia JMag helps two Hyde Square Task Force Students with their sewing project. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Hyde Square Task Force students dye fabrics as part of their Map This workshop. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Close up of a student outlining their map. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Two Hyde Square Task Force students work together to check the fit of their garments. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Hyde Square Task Force students work on their Map This garments. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Urbano Project students learn about print-making. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
An Urbano Project student carves a linoleum tile, the first step in print-making. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
More carving. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
An Urbano Project student rolls paint over a linoleum tile, the next step in print-making. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
A wide shot of students working in the Urbano Project space. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Nathalia JMag launches the Map This workshop at Urbano Project. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
Some finished linoleum tiles, ready for print-making. Photo by Faizal Westcott, June 2019.
L-R: Mimi Onuoha, Athmika Senthilkumar, Ana Krishnan, Vanessa Lee, and Rhea Vedro at the final presentation of Olin College works.
Olin College Students on a tour of the Museum with Rhea Vedro, Director of Community Engagement
Students participate in a class discussion about Map This.
Students participate in a class discussion about Map This.
Olin College Academic Advisor Mimi Onuoha leads a class discussion about Map This.
Nathalia JMag teaches Urbano Project students how to use a sewing machine.
A close-up shot of a rainbow map-inspired textile created by Urbano Project students.

About the Community Engagement Partners

Nathalia JMag, photo by Ally Schmaling
Urbano Project, photo by Faizal Westcott
Sisters Unchained Logo
Hyde Square Task Force, photo by Mark Saperstein
Mimi Onuoha, Olin College of Engineering, photo by Leise Jones Photography
Nathalia JMag is a Gardner Neighborhood Salon Luminary and eco-sustainable fashion designer. Her work centers the intersection of design and eco-sustainability and a reimagining of the factory-labor-driven fashion industry from within. During her time working with the Museum as a Neighborhood Salon Luminary thus far, JMag has led a hands-on studio workshop on natural dyeing techniques and created several new fashion collections in response to our special exhibitions. JMag will work with our community partner organizations’ diverse bilingual teen populations leading hands-on workshops using textiles as a medium to explore themes of counter-cartography, alternative visions of the city, and urban photography. Photo by Ally Schmaling.
Urbano is a non profit art space that brings together practicing visual artists, local youth, and community members to learn and experiment through place-based projects. We foster public and participatory art as a vehicle for personal transformation, community cohesion, and social change. Our projects consist of Artists-in-Residence, Youth Projects, Apprentices, and Workshops all of which intersect around an annual curatorial theme. Photo by Faizal Westcott.
Sisters Unchained serves young women of color with loved ones currently and formerly behind bars. Their goal is to build community among women whose lives have been affected by incarceration. Through art, radical education, and collective healing and visioning, they seek to create an environment where women are supported and do not feel alone.
Hyde Square Task Force works to develop the skills of youth and their families so they are empowered to enhance their own lives and build a strong and vibrant urban community. Hyde Square Task Force's programs and civic engagement activities are developed by youth and residents in response to community needs. Youth are at the heart of all of their work. They believe that social change is most successful when young people develop the skills to succeed and become committed change-makers. Photo by Mark Saperstein.
Mimi Onuoha of Olin College of Engineering has led an independent study course, "Impossible Maps," as the kick-off for Map This. Students explored​ how digital technologies have created new opportunities and resources for mapping, cartography, and geolocation-based visual investigations​, and how these technologies also touch on issues concerning power, representation, and space.​ ​In this group independent study, students partner​ed​ with the Gardner Museum and the following community youth organizations to create pieces that consider the intersection of art, data, and space in new ways. The​se projects serve as a form of research, visual inspiration, and raw material for ​Map This, and will live with the community partners after the August 22nd Map This Block Party. Photo above by Leise Jones Photography.

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