News & Updates

New art and activities planned for Fort Point Channel

Jul 05, 2012

Thanks to a competitive grant program $61,000 has been awarded to several area non profits to create water based public programming along Fort Point Channel. Projects include art installations, a design competition, and public boats. The six groups that won the grants are the Hull Lifesaving Museum, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, Design Museum Boston, Agoos D-zines, Fort Point Arts Community, and Friends of Fort Point Channel. The Pilot Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Grant Program is funded by the Chapter 91 Waterways Regulations License for Atlantic Wharf and developer Boston Properties. Hull Lifesaving Museum was awarded $7,000 towards their program Activating the Watersheet: Summer 2012 that includes a boat rental program and rowing race. Public boat rentals will be available Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 3pm, and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4pm to 7pm at the Gillette Dock in the Seawall Basin during the months of July and August. Boats can be rented for $15 per hour. The rowing race, The Fort Point Open, was held on June 23, 2012. The $5,000 in grant funding awarded to Save the Harbor/Save the Bay will go towards “The Changing Channel.” The program consists of 20 hour-long, lunchtime eco-tours of the Fort Point Channel this summer narrated by Save the Harbor/Save the Bay staff. Design Museum Boston was awarded $20,000 for their project, Street Seats, a design competition and public art installation planned for April 2013 through October 2013. The design competition will be for sustainable outdoor sidewalk furniture for the Boston Harborwalk. The public art installation will include competition entries and a walking tour around the Fort Point Channel Harborwalk. Agoos D-zines, a Massachusetts design firm, was awarded $14,500 for Arts Imbalance, a sculptural installation  between the Summer Street Bridge and the Congress Street Bridge over the Fort Point Channel. The sculpture features a pair of life-size figures counterbalanced on a rope hung across the channel. Visit today! The Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC) was awarded $9,000 for a public art installation this winter. The Winter Lights Series will feature three light-based temporary public art installations on the Fort Point Harborwalk done in collaboration with several Fort Point artists. Friends of Fort Point Channel received $5,500 to fund a public art installation in the Artist's Basin of the channel. The Winter Floating Art Installation will be done in collaboration with a Fort Point artist from December 2012 through February 2, 2013. The Pilot Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Grant Program is part of the Fort Point Watersheet Activation Plan established in 2002 by Mayor Menino and the BRA to spearhead a vision for a “Boston Common on the water.” The Plan created a map of cultural activities and year round programming and is proof that collaboration between the City, landowners, nonprofit and cultural leaders, and residents is a success.  Featured Photo Courtesy of Peter Agoos of Agoos D-zines

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