The Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) unveiled a mural at the Mattapan Teen Center on May 14 with a crew of ten student-artists flooding Hazelton Street with technicolor.

The mural is part of the BPDA’s $75,000 public art initiative, PLAN: Mattapan, which was launched in 2018 under the broader scope of BPDA’s Imagine Boston: 2030 project. The project is aimed at supporting long-term equitable growth and sustainability for Mattapan’s local economy.

Teen Center director Rick Aggeler, who convened the teen-artists in January to begin work on the mural, said the project was a “community effort in every sense.”

“We’ve never taken on a mural, but the Teen Center offers most opportunities because the kids take initiative and because the staff have enough autonomy over programming to bring their vision to life,” he said.

An $8,000 grant from the BPDA funded the artistic venture. Aggeler said the disbursement aided in “getting kids to disconnect, which became a big priority when the pandemic came along and classes were mostly if not fully virtual.”

The center re-opened in July 2020 with reduced hours, offering programming to a younger cohort of students, providing socially distanced study areas and supplying headphones, meals, and snacks, as well as the center’s traditional after-school program.

Thanks to the grant, the center was able to compensate aspiring artists for their work and give students an incentive to step away from their screens.

“It’s easy for kids to hang online, but giving them the autonomy to design a mural and present it to our neighborhood shows how the BPDA values our teens’ voices and their contribution to our community,” said Aggeler.

Chelton Francois, a junior at Boston Arts Academy, led the student team. The mural celebrates with bright colors and promotes the qualities that Francois and his peers believe characterize the center – engagement, community, activism, opportunity, safety, and fun.

Mattapan native Jeremy Harrison, a local artist who goes by the name “Sobek,” is taking the reins for the next phase of BPDA-commissioned public art – “putting some flavor” on the name of Carter Post 16 is Mattapan.

The Carter Post in Mattapan is the first African-American American Legion post to be chartered in Massachusetts, and the mural will pay homage to its 100th anniversary by showcasing the Creole, Irish, Asian, and Indigenous cultural undercurrents that converge in Mattapan.

“Graffiti is the art of writing and bringing an illustrative approach to public art. It’s a craft that I’m really glad the city is making space for and really glad the city is acknowledging the value it brings to the community,” Harrison said.