On View: Public Art by Dan Borelli Related to Ashland, MA, Superfund Site
A memorial garden and street light intervention related to the Nyanza Superfund site in the Town of Ashland, MA, designed by Ashland native and Artists’ Prospectus for the Nation artist Dan Borelli, are now on view. (accessible from the Middle School Baseball Field off Rt. 135 and the MBTA Access Road) . The memorial garden is accessible from the Middle School Baseball Field off Rt. 135 as well as the MBTA Access Road. The street light intervention in the middle of the Town is viewable after dark for the foreseeable future.
The two were launched on Saturday, June 18, beginning with a Strawberry Moon and Healing ceremony performed in the memorial garden by members of the Nipmuc Tribe, contemporary descendants of the Native Americans who inhabited nearby Megunko Hill where the Superfund site is located. The event continued with a free community dinner in the outfield of Ashland Middle School Baseball Field, which abuts the memorial garden, and concluded that night with tours of the streetlight intervention, which traces the contaminated groundwater plume that still lies below much of the Town.
The memorial garden and streetlight intervention are the final stages of Borelli’s Illuminating Futures art-based research project, which he began in 2010. The goal of the project is to increase awareness and understanding of soil and water contamination in the Town as well as promote psychological healing among affected townspeople.
Memorial garden pavilion being readied for “Illuminating Futures” opening Saturday, June 18. Photo: Dan Borelli.
As Borelli has said, “The subject choice is not random; in fact, it’s deeply personal…. Some friends of mine even contracted a rare, fatal form of cancer, and Nyanza was posthumously verified as the source.” One of those friends, Kevin Kane, a year ahead of Borelli at Ashland High School, spent the last months of his life researching the cancer that sickened him and others in the community in the 1990s, and eventually pushed public health officials to investigate the link with the Nyanza contamination. A report confirming the link was published by the MA Department of Public Health in 2006.
The first phase of Illuminating Futures consisted of an exhibit Borelli organized about the history and legacy of the Nyanza Colorant Plant Superfund site that was on view at Ashland Public Library from September 25 through December 19, 2015. A significant portion of that exhibit still resides in the Library, including oral histories from people directly affected by Nyanza displayed on a video monitor, and the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) repository of remediation records for the site, which have been at the library since the late 1980s. (The library is located at 66 Front St., Ashland, and is open Tues. – Thurs. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fri. 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.; and Sat. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.)
According to EPA research, there has been a chemical colorant plant on Megunko Hill since 1917; Nyanza was the last, operating there from 1965 to 1978. In 1982, the site was designated one of the first 10 in the EPA’s Superfund Program. “Today, the contaminated groundwater plume and mercury sediment remains, triggering the EPA to implement vapor mitigation systems on more than 40 structures, both residential and commercial,” Borelli says.
Generous funding for the project has come from ArtPlace America and the National Endowment for the Arts through The Arts Company, which has provided administrative, financial and marketing services to the project. The Town of Ashland, local citizens and businesses have provided significant in-kind support, including the New England Laborers Training Trust Fund, Weld Rite, Inc. and Ashland Excavating Co., Inc.
Borelli’s Prospectus project, The Cloud of Unknowing, was a precursor to Illuminating Futures. Past news items about Illuminating Futures can be found on this website by typing “Borelli” in the search box.
Illuminating Futures also has its own website. The Illuminating Futures library exhibit website, designed by Lorraine Fryer with contamination timeline interactive graphic designed by Ming Tu can be accessed here. Apple devices can download an “Ashland-Nyanza Project” app.
Borelli (left) and Ashland Town worker Chris Messier test streetlight for June 18 intervention (Photo: Marie Cieri)
Excavator operator John Rossi (front right) watches Dan Borelli and Jake Merloni (back left and center, respectively) take measurements during ground preparation for Illuminating Futures memorial garden by Borelli. Photo by Marie Cieri.
