Centerboard replacing Central Square artwork

LYNN – A downtown revitalization group is replacing the giant photographs adorning the MBTA bridge in Central Square and is seeking donations to help to fund it, a spokesperson for the organization said Monday.?To beautify any neighborhood is a wonderful thing, but we?re also trying to draw people into downtown Lynn,” said Carla Scheri, spokesperson for Centerboard, an expansion of Serving People in Need (SPIN), a Lynn-based homeless advocacy group founded by Mark DeJoie.For the second installment of the group?s Public Art project, the group recruited professional artists from Lynn and other North Shore communities to create eight more prints to replace the originals and offer a fresh view for downtown visitors, and is running a fundraising campaign to help commission the artists.The campaign is being run on the popular fundraising website Kickstarter, Scheri said. There are several rewards depending on the level of contribution, ranging from T-shirts to VIP tickets to the revealing party for the project. The goal of the campaign is $5,000 and donations will be accepted until March 18.Lynn-based amateur photographer Cheryl Ransom, 40, heard about the project from a friend and immediately jumped on board as one of the photographers.?I had seen the ones that are currently in the center of town, those are great so when I heard they were doing it again I said ?Definitely,?” said Ransom.Centerboard asked each of the eight participating artists to submit five pictures, Ransom said, and a panel of judges will choose the ones that will be displayed in the square. Ransom described her favorite submission, taken during a cultural festival in downtown Lynn.?It?s a big basket of orange and red peppers,” she said. “It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the peppers looked so I nice I just took a picture.”The group has no current plans to place photographs elsewhere in the city, but Scheri said they?re looking to find a permanent home for the first set of photographs once the new ones go up.?We?re focusing on the bridge because it?s such a great canvas,” Scheri said.Students taking a photography class run by Centerboard took the five photographs currently on display along the bridge, a gallery of 8-foot by 10-foot pictures featuring a variety of subjects and printed on weatherized vinyl. Centerboard unveiled the prints in the square last summer.The group hopes to unveil the new installation on April 12.For more information on Centerboard, visit the organization website http://www.thecenterboard.org. To contribute to the project, prospective donors should enter the search term “Public Art 2.0” on the website?s homepage http://www.kickstarter.com.Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].