New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Tracy Silva Barbosa, a New Bedford artist whose paintings and glass sculptures are collected worldwide, has fallen in love with the Grow Education’s (Grow) Carney Academy Greenhouse Project. Barbosa aims to echo the spirit of growth through a mural within the greenhouse structure. This is to be a benchmark work of art for Tracy’s career, and a historic gift for the all the people of Carney Academy, and the City of New Bedford as well.
Grow, a program of the Marion Institute, seeks to create gardens in all of 27 New Bedford Public Schools by 2018. Grow’s goal is to connect teachers to community support systems and resources, empowering them to increase nutrition and sustainability education initiatives in their classrooms. Through the creation of school-based gardens, we hope to increase accessibility to locally grown food for teachers, their students and the New Bedford community.
The fascinating part about Carney Academy is the large greenhouse built into an arts and science wing on the second floor of the school structure! The greenhouse has not been used by the students of school community for some time, and certainly never for vegetable production to feed the cafeteria. This mural project will illuminate the space while providing real life class time. Students will be invited in to learn about the elemental nature of the metals & materials used in the piece and how the chemical reactions work. CertaPro Painters by ProGroup Network has also donated a beautiful new floor to update the scattered loose tiles that were in poor condition.
To make this unique project possible and to complete our full Carney Greenhouse revival, we need your support. The funds raised will go directly to Tracy to purchase needed materials, supplies, insurance and labor costs for the project. Please support this magical transformation of a dust filled, unused greenhouse into a fully functioning, inspirational place of growth and solace for students, their families, and the city of New Bedford to share with world.
You can find more information and support this revival by visiting http://www.gofundme.com/GreatArtforAll or www.marioninstitute.org
