New Bedford and Fairhaven Designs for Living with Rising Seas Exhibition Opening at the New Bedford Art Museum

Jan 29

`More than 230 guests gathered in the New Bedford Art Museum to celebrate New Bedford and Fairhaven designs from 175 students who participated in the Envision Resilience Challenge in the fall of 2023.`

By Charlotte Van Voorhis

The People’s Gallery in the New Bedford Art Museum hummed with conversation on Friday, January 26 as more than 230 attendees showed up to celebrate the Designs for Living with Rising Seas exhibition opening. Among the crowds were representatives from the 2021 Nantucket Challenge, 2022 Narragansett Bay Challenge and the upcoming 2024 Portland and South Portland Challenge.

The turnout speaks to the efforts of our studio teams and the engagement of the communities. Meeting with stakeholders from across industries in the region, from renewable energy to the fishing industry, education to economic development, sustainable architecture to cultural groups has been invaluable to the studio outcomes. The final designs showcased exemplify the incredible team of community advisors who gave their time and energy to informing the students’ designs and proposals.

The outcomes of the student work, while not prescriptive nor shovel ready, are meant to inspire hope and galvanize resilience efforts already underway. Designs like that of UVA student Vishal, considers the integration of Christmas tree farming and shellfish farming as an approach to active agricultural and marsh migration, may help Fairhaven residents reckon with the projected losses and embrace new traditions and uses of coastline.

“My time working on the New Bedford Envision Resilience project has taught me how critical it is to start thinking beyond convention and in ways that embrace the water, rather than fighting it. The Port of New Bedford is a place of constant change and adaptation—and as the community and industries progress forward, design and architectural solutions must think ahead 50, 100 years from now.”

— Marla Stephens, MArch, University of Florida '24

RISD’s investigation of New Bedford’s intricate urban systems, that answered the question ‘who is the city for?’, might inspire developers to employ a more pragmatic typology of housing on the water’s edge that focuses on community and the growth of family units instead of an isolating one that risks gentrification. And while an exploration of floating farms on repurposed marine and cargo barges from UMass Amherst students Zach, Chaitrali and Pavana might seem somewhat radical today, there’s hope that this out-of-the-box thinking could address food insecurity in a coastal city like New Bedford, while also providing ecological benefits like bio-remediation.

Additionally, the Challenge’s art partner, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA), which lost its 20-year space in downtown New Bedford with the closing of the Star Store in August 2023, represented strongly with faculty, students and families attending the show to see their artists’ work on display.

The speeches for the evening were capped off by University of Florida student, Marla Stephens, who spoke about her growing up in Florida and her designs for New Bedford’s working waterfront.

“At the Port I witnessed little moments – simple joys and interactions,” Marla said, “from watching the fishermen throw chum out to the fish and seagulls, or the lively dockside restaurants. And in the evening, spots like Merrill’s and the Black Whale came alive. It was the day to day exchanges at the port that really inspired me and the rest of our class as we moved into this project.”

Marla’s work, along with that of the other 174 in this year's cohort, aims to encourage the notion of learning to live with and even embrace the waters from rising seas, storm surges and sunny-day flooding. It hopes to provide visions and pathways for changing industries, population and infrastructure needs under the impacts of climate.

Thank you to the Suzanne de Vegh, Bob Miklos and Amanda Quintin for all their work making the event possible. You can watch highlights from the event in this video article from the New Bedford Light.

We are still looking to partner on programming while the exhibit is up until March 23. Please reach out to cvanvoorhis@remainnantucket.org if you would like to use the People’s Gallery for a community event.