Center for Art and Community Partnerships
We partner with people and communities within and beyond MassArt to radically expand access to transformative creative experiences.
Learn MoreGrowing Community Through Public Art
Ammy Gonzalez Rivera ’26 creates a new mural for the Roxbury Sunflower Project.
A mural by Ammy Gonzalez Rivera ’26 brings nature and color to Boston's Grove Hall neighborhood.
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Written by the Center for Art and Community Partnerships (CACP)
Massachusetts College of Art and Design alumna and sparc! the ArtMobile team member Ammy Gonzalez Rivera, BFA ’26 Communication Design, designed and helped collaboratively paint a new mural for the Roxbury Sunflower Project, a community initiative led by artist and alumna Ekua Holmes.
The mural draws inspiration from the Roxbury Sunflower Project’s work to bring nature and color to the neighborhood through community planting while creating opportunities for community members to lead, contribute, and make positive change.
For Gonzalez Rivera, a Dominican-born artist and designer based in Boston, the project was also an opportunity to explore the role public art can play in everyday community life.
Public art is especially meaningful to me because of its ability to offer new perspectives and inspire people in an accessible, everyday way. Through this mural, I wanted to celebrate the importance of caring for our communities and remind viewers that young people have the power to create meaningful change.Ammy Gonzalez Rivera BFA ’26 Communication Design
The project was collaborative from the start. Gonzalez Rivera led a team of artists from MassArt’s Center for Art and Community Partnerships (CACP) in bringing the mural to life, with each participant contributing their own ideas and artistic perspective.
“Watching each artist contribute their unique ideas while helping bring my vision to life was incredibly fulfilling,” she said. “This experience brought together two of my greatest passions: collaborating with fellow creatives and using public art to make meaningful messages accessible to everyone.”
Through its imagery and its creation process, the finished mural reflects the values at the heart of the Roxbury Sunflower Project: cultivating community, investing in young people, and caring for the places people call home.
“I hope everyone who experiences this work feels inspired to beautify and care for the places and people around them,” Gonzalez Rivera said.
Gonzalez Rivera led a team of artists from MassArt’s Center for Art and Community Partnerships (CACP) to bring the mural to life.
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