LYNN — Two community groups, a local restaurant owner, and a Salem artist have banded together to turn a Lynn corner into a colorful seascape.
Anna Dugan’s talented hands transformed the jersey barriers blocking off Christopher’s Cafe’s outdoor dining space on Ocean Street from dull concrete to murals brimming with whales, sea lions, octopuses and giant crabs.
Dugan’s creation drew smiles and comments from last week from drivers stopped at the traffic signal next to Christopher’s.
“I probably got 40 people a day who said, ‘This makes me so happy,'” she said.
Dugan turned concrete into art through a collaboration between Christopher’s owner David Shalvoy and community organizations Creative Collective and Lynn Main Streets.
Main Streets’ goal is finding ways to bring people together in Lynn to revitalize the city. The group picked March 13 to launch its initiatives and promptly saw the COVID-19 pandemic trigger social distancing precautions that temporarily thwarted its efforts.
Main Streets community engagement director Tia Cole said Main Streets regrouped and started connecting the dots between business owners like Shalvoy, artists like Dugan, and other organizations working on finding out how people throughout communities can help one another.
“What came out of COVID was people really working together,” Cole said.
John Andrews, founder of Salem-based Creative Collective, has been working in lockstep with Main Streets to find ways art can improve communities, in part by working with businesses.
“There’s a great marriage there: The creative workforce can support small business,” Andrews said, adding Main Streets is “critically important” in aiding artists and businesses suffering economically during the pandemic.
Main Streets worked with Dugan on art projects in Salem during the summer and the group secured a MassDevelopment Community Places grant on Sept. 8 to continue its work helping artists like Dugan.
Shalvoy said Dugan’s art has drawn more customers into Christopher’s.
“This brings so much attention to this part of town,” he said.
During the summer, Shalvoy set up tables and umbrellas on the Ocean Street sidewalk next to Christopher’s and he prepared and delivered meals during the pandemic to help feed people who lost jobs and income due to COVID-19 business closings.
Dugan said her sea theme grew out of conversations with Andrews and made sense given Christopher’s location a block away from the beach.
“It’s joyful, happy and vibrant,” she said.
