Painting the Town Red — and Blue and Green and Orange and …

2023 Common Good Awards Alumni Award Honoree, Silvia López Chavez

Silvia López Chavez is a Dominican-American artist whose collaborative, community-centered murals aim to forge meaningful cross-cultural connections. Her vibrant, joyful works dramatically transform urban spaces by honoring the identity of a place and its people, all while remaining approachable and accessible to a wide audience. López Chavez views art-making as a critical tool for community building, and seeks to bring awareness to contemporary issues of social and environmental justice throughout her work. She is a frequent collaborator on public art projects with urban planners, architects, non-profits, developers, and activists.

López Chavez’s local works can be seen across Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Lynn, Salem, Beverly, Danvers, Ipswich, and Marblehead. She is a Neighborhood Salon Luminary at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the recipient of a New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) Leadership in Public Art award (2021), and a Studios at MASS MoCA artist in residence. Commissions include the U.S. Chinese Embassy in Beijing, Google HQ in California, SeaWalls Boston, MIT, Harvard University, Twitter, and Northeastern University.