Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
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BY KILEY JACQUES Thanks to the talented team at Oliver Brothers Fine Art Restoration and Conservation and a devoted group of community advocates, two important murals are enjoying a second life. Cultural Exchange IN THIS ISSUE The Re-creation of Two Salem Murals Page 48 48 | APRIL 2016 nshoremag.com photographs courtesy of Oliver Brothers Fine Art Restoration and Conservation Bicultural identities—that's something many of the residents in Salem's Point neighborhood have in common. The pri- marily Dominican population has roots in the Caribbean and familial ties in the States. That duality is depicted in paint on two large murals that have been recently resur- rected after languishing out of sight for years. As part of the 15 Ward Street Pocket Park & Public Art Project, which transformed a dump site into a small urban park, two murals—originally painted in 1997— were replicated by Oliver Brothers Fine Art Restoration and Conservation in 2015. At the project's helm was the North Shore Community Development Coalition (CDC). "They are basically going in and improving neighbor- hoods," says Oliver Brothers principal Greg Bishop. Such was the case for the lower-income Point neighborhood. "They originally wanted to restore them," says Bishop of the murals. "They contacted us because we are a restoration company, but I went to see them—they were in basements and covered in mold…. They were really too far gone." Ultimately, they decided to re-create the murals using the same panel form. To start, they transported all of the rotting sheets of plywood to their shop in Beverly, where they photographed all of the panels for reference. "We quickly realized the most efficient thing to do was to trace the murals on the original panels using translucent tissue paper," explains Bishop. "Then we took the new tracings and flipped them over and drew on the back so we had a reverse negative, which we transferred onto the new panels so we had a chalk outline." The Future is located at 21-23 Ward Street in Salem. The mural is 28 feet wide and 25 feet high, comprising 21 individual panels.