Lowell's Bus Stop Makeovers
Local artists design new artsy bus stops.
The City of Lowell just unveiled two new art projects at bus stops around the city.
The bus stop makeovers are the result of a partnership between the Lowell Economic Development Office and Mosaic Lowell. The funding for this project came from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Since I recently wrote a piece about the state of bus stops in Lowell, I wanted to shine a light on a project that I think will have a positive impact in that area.
In order to understand the goals of this project, I reached out to interview Ali Carter, the Director of Economic Development for the city of Lowell, as well as Mosaic Lowell.
According to Ali Carter, the goal of this project is “to bring more public art to the neighborhoods of Lowell – the residential neighborhoods outside of downtown – and make the experience of riding the bus a little more fun.”
Based on this goal, Mosaic Lowell commissioned two Lowell-based artists to design the bus stop art: Ashley Belizaire and Mark Saffie. I had the opportunity to interview each of them.
Ashley Belizaire
The first bus stop, located at the corner of Chelmsford Street and Lincoln Street, was designed on Procreate by Ashley Belizaire, “a Lowell-based digital artist whose work centers Black girlhood, community, and the beauty of everyday life. Her submitted piece captures a vibrant neighborhood moment — children playing, neighbors passing by, and everyday city life unfolding. It’s a tribute to joy, movement, and the shared rhythm of urban community.”
I asked Beliziare her inspiration for this piece. “It all stemmed from the concept of these characters playing rope. How innocent is that? Being in the city in the summer.”
“Most of my art is centered on the depiction of Black and Brown women in everyday life. I wanted them to be at the center, seeing young girls of color, just enjoying themselves, being young girls in the city, playing double dutch. That’s kind of my mission statement. Positive depictions of women of color.”
She also wanted the piece to be emblematic of Lowell. She included an LRTA bus on the right and brick buildings in the background, inspired by Lowell’s classic red brick mill infrastructure.
I asked about Belizaire’s background. She explained to me that, while she has always been interested in art, she had been away from it for a while. She didn’t do art in high school or college. But after earning a degree in pharmaceutical sciences and pursuing a career in biotechnology, art has become a creative outlet for her.
“I actually started to get back into it in 2020 during the pandemic. It was a way for me to keep busy and do something that I felt that I never had the opportunity to do. To dive into my creative endeavors.”
After moving to Lowell in 2021, she heard about the Mosaic Lowell contest. “I thought it was an opportunity to challenge myself – put myself in a position to put my art out there. It was such a cool thing to do. Win or lose, at the time, I didn’t even care because I did something that I did not thing I would ever do, which is put my art out there. For it to get chosen is beyond exciting. […] I am grateful, honestly, that I have the opportunity to have my art be installed in the world, at least for a year. It is something I can always look back to when I am having a bad day. It’s something I can look to. Even if it’s gone, I can say it was there at some point.”
There is something very beautiful about this last sentence.
That’s one of the extraordinary things about public art. It is the opportunity for someone – anyone – to create moments of joy and beauty for their community, even for a fleeting moment.
Belizaire is currently in the drafting stages of a mural at a flower shop in Boston. Keep up with her work on Instagram here: @b.ashley1123
Mark Saffie
The second bus stop, located at the corner of Bridge Street and 3rd Street, was designed by Mark Saffie, a graduate of UMass Lowell. According to Saffie’s proposal, this design “is based on the simple premise that music and happiness can be found in the most unexpected of places. The flowers on the beaten up guitar show life and growth in a place where it might not be obvious from a surface level. The dark muted colors of the guitar bounce against bright vibrant colors of nature and the background.”
When I asked Saffie to elaborate on his piece, and here was his response via email:
“At the expense of sounding super cheesy, this piece is an ode to the music scene in Lowell that really shaped me. I was at UMass [Lowell] from 2010-2014, and then moved here in 2017, so I’ve been in this city for almost 15 years. I’ve made so many friends in the music scene, and my band has played so many great venues from the Worthen House, to Koto, to Thirsty First, Uncharted, Taffeta. Lowell can get a bad rep, but the talent that resides here is unmatched. I wanted to portray that in Lowell (the cracked up broken guitar), there is so much beauty and talent (the blooming flowers) that can be found if you take the time to look. The art style is my signature illustrative style of just clean bold lines and pops of complimentary colors.”
When asked about the value of public art projects like this one, Saffie told me that public art “adds some life to the city and can be a bright spot. You turn on the news and it’s all bad, literally all the time. Across the country people are hungry, people struggle day to day, people get snatched up off the street at the gas station across the street from me. Having public art installments like this one can hopefully be a reminder that there are humans out here just trying their best and staying positive. Be kind to your neighbors and stay hopeful. We’re all people and better times are coming.”
This is not the first time Saffie has made a mark on Lowell’s visual landscape. His 2023 piece titled “once upon a midnight dreary, I cannot grasp music theory,” is hosted at the Joseph Downes Parking Garage. This allusion to Edgar Allan Poe’s narrative poem, “The Raven” is an homage to The Worthen House Cafe in Lowell, the oldest tavern in Lowell, which was “once occupied by the likes of Edgar Allen Poe, Jack Kerouac, Jimmy Breslin and Ed McMahon.”
Saffie also helped with the logo and branding of Damn Shame Records. The record store, previously housed at Mill No. 5, and temporarily at Lala books, has just re-opened at the Hive Public Market on Merrimack Street.
Saffie is also actively doing design work for nonprofits in the Merrimack Valley. He did design work for the Lowell Association for the Blind’s recent “Brews for the Blind” fundraiser at Epigram Brew Co. He is the designer with the Bread and Roses festival in Lawrence.
Concluding Thoughts
I am personally very excited about this project. I think that through this project, Mosaic Lowell is living up to its goal to “enliven all of Lowell and its neighborhoods as places to live, work, and visit.”
The very process of reporting on this has brought me a deep sense of connection to the many people (the city employees and the artists) trying to make the city a beautiful and joyful place to life.
Nice - thanks for sharing - I love a good bus stop!