FELLOW SPOTLIGHT: CLAUDIA PARASCHIV
CLAUDIA PARASCHIV
Owner and Founder, Studioful Design
Region: North of Boston
Photo credit: Stephanie Espinal
The 2023-2024 Advocacy and Organizing Fellowship cohort is a collective of arts and culture leaders, practitioners, and activists from distinct communities across Massachusetts. While they spend the year incubating and implementing plans to address the unique needs of local or statewide creative communities, MASSCreative is proud to share their reflections on their projects and learnings.
This reflection is offered by fellow Claudia Paraschiv. Claudia is the owner and founder of Studioful Design in Salem and lives on the North Shore. She is using her fellowship experience to propose urban design and public art projects to enhance peoples’ well-being in densely-populated areas.
REFLECTION FROM CLAUDIA:
As an architect and public artist, I understand the greater reverence in our society for those professions that provide hard value (blueprints for permitting!), in contrast to my work as an artist–emotional, ephemeral, and hard to fit into an objective-value rubric. Shelter vs. imagination? Yet these seemingly nice-to-have projects nudge a cultural shift toward greater engagement in civic life, stewardship of our urban-nature cities and, critically, friendship. The bonds formed working together on these projects and the relationships sustained by having a convenient and beautiful meeting space is important. There’s no clear blueprint for that.
“The MASSCreative Fellowship has underlined the genuine importance of art, something I’ve felt personally, yet only sporadically, in the public sphere. The bimonthly meetings with visionary professionals and passionate co-fellows have buoyed this feeling into a conviction that helps me move forward when doubts arise.”
And doubts are plentiful when embarking on new ventures, especially those that deal with soft factors, which often defy easy measurement. Clear and applicable guidelines from presenters, such as weaving in my personal story to explain my passion for a project, along with real world impact, has been empowering.
Growing up in a small apartment full of love, but with only a tiny balcony, nurtured my desire for more accessible public spaces for families. This was reinforced after I had children and realized what a boon my dead-end street in Salem was to their safety and freedom to play outside. Although we’re lucky to have a lovely back yard, it is important for kids to also be in public. Just this morning, my three-year-old son called out “Hello Joe!” to a neighbor who often rides past on his bike, and whom he has met because we’re able to use our dead end street for outdoor play.
My project, Friend-End Street takes on the vital need to reclaim streets for outdoor use. There’s much evidence of this need, including the imperative to slow down dangerous motor traffic, and the need for more pedestrian and bicycle use, which allows kids autonomy in their cities as their independence grows. The parent-taxi culture of shuttling kids from place to place could well be a factor in teen anxiety. The benefits are not just social; more greenery instead of asphalt would mitigate the heat-island affect that rises with summer temperatures, provide permeable surfaces to hold storm water when it rains, and host pollinators, among other benefits for environmental challenges on a micro-scale.
Friend-End Street grew out of my residency as Salem’s 2023 Public Artist in Residence, which centered on a large scale mobile tree sculpture, The Tree of Care + Wonder. I’m now proposing urban design projects intended to enhance peoples’ well-being in their city. Friend-End Street is one of four projects selected for advancement by Mayor Pangallo, and the one I feel holds the most transformative potential. Friend-End Street proposes micro-parks in the middle of neighborhood streets to reduce car traffic and encourage non-motor use. These parks would include street murals, places to sit, container gardens, small trees, areas for chalk art, and space for performance and play. These elements would be adaptable to the specific preferences of residents and neighbors. I envision Friend-End Street’s proliferation similar to that of parklets and outdoor seating at restaurants.
Former Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, now the Lieutenant Governor, once told me the pandemic had shown that thriving public spaces are critical to residents’ well-being. Friend-End Street seeks to do just that. Lt. Gov Driscoll is scheduled to open MASSCreative’s upcoming summit in May. For too long, political support of art and culture has been superficial. I’m hopeful this is changing. Through the constellation of projects stewarded by co-fellows and creative leaders, I believe increased awareness and support across the Commonwealth will show how our lives are indeed enhanced by artful, soft use of public space like Friend-End Street.
