Young artists paint ‘a beautiful future’ in downtown Manchester park

A group of up-and-coming artists are continuing to add color to the Sheehan-Basquil park in Manchester’s center city. Despite some setbacks from the city, the group was able to paint a colorful mural on the side of the park’s little league clubhouse.

Participant Effie Ntongo is a rising senior at West High School. She explained that the theme of the project was “Thoughts Projected,” looking to what the future could be.

“The world right now is not really looking very good,” she said. “It’s not what people would imagine it to be. So we did the mural to show a different world, like our thoughts projected what we would like to see.”

This theme inspired her to create a work of art depicting interconnected figures, which was based on her hopes for more connection and unity.

The MYTURN internship was started last year by several nonprofits, including Nashua-based Positive Street Art. Coordinator Yasamin Safarzadeh said that these two years have been a learning curve, but added that she was “blown away” by seeing young people take charge.

“This is the first time that I just let it go and had facilitators that we’ve trained up to be leaders and the youth take it over,” she said. “I cannot deny how amazing that feels.”

For other interns, the future of the park is about fun and connection. Several participants gathered over the weekend to celebrate with crafts, snacks, circus performances, and live music.

Self-described “vibes coordinator” Seana McDuffie said she was proud of the final product.

“Our interns and participants envisioned a beautiful future of galaxies and space, interactive and whimsical playgrounds – all the things that can come from only a child’s mind,” she said.

The park is the site of a closed-up community pool and a newly opened splash pad. The city has plans to eventually demolish the little league clubhouse and build something else there. Until then, the remodeled clubhouse will still host the little league and the adaptive sports league.