Guest contribution by Michael O’Shea, adapted from Parks and Excavation blog.
Last month, I spent a couple of hours in an alley with three circus performers, an accordionist, and a hundred other Montréal residents. I stood around around talking, watching children play with hula hoops, and viewing slide projections of a German Bauhaus artist. Where was I?
Well not in just in any ordinary alley. I was in the Rue Jaune created by the Museum of Fine Arts, in collaboration with Sun Life Financial, and one of Montréal’s leading environmental organizations, Éco-quartier. The “yellow street” was illuminated for two nights in April, in a green alley between Fairmount and Laurier, Jeanne-Mance and Parc Avenues.
The Museum of Fine Arts is currently hosting a retrospective on the paintings of German Bauhaus artist Lyonel Feininger. To bring these works closer to the community and make use of the already completed green alley, the Museum organized a festive alley party and projected images of the Feininger’s paintings onto the surrounding brick walls.
I had the chance to talk to residents and event organizers as I roamed the alley and studied Feininger’s artwork. Residents told me how much they enjoyed this evening of art, music and culture as they met other residents, learned about Feininger’s work, and watched their children dance to circus music.
They also expressed support for green alley projects that created a space community events like Rue Jaune (named after one of Feininger’s canvases). The resident featured in video below told me that greening efforts help “humaniser les ruelles,” (“humanize the alleys”) by softening hard brick and asphalt and by bringing residents – not cars – outside.
And was event difficult to put together? “It only took about a month and half to organize,” a spokesman for Sun Life Financial told me. Impressive organization for an event that brought together an accordionist, three women on stilts, and dozens of Montrealers happy to spend an evening outside, in an alley.