My HomeCourt: Andrea Bergart
My HomeCourt: Lois Harada
120 Cranston Street Court, Providence, RI
September 17, 2020–
In September 2020, non-profit My HomeCourt [MHC] and Providence College Galleries [PCG], in collaboration with Providence Parks, unveiled a newly constructed outdoor public basketball court at Cranston Street Park on the city’s West side. The basketball court features a court mural by renowned artist Andrea Bergart.
In early 2019, MHC, Providence Parks, Providence Housing Authority, and Armory Management Company (on behalf of Pearl Street Lofts) agreed to build a basketball court from the ground up to match a recently refurbished playground at the Cranston Street Tot Lot.
In addition to referencing various sources like non-Western textiles and urban fashion, Bergart’s past artworks, ranging from hand-painted textiles to painted cement trucks, prominently feature basketball culture and imagery. She has also found inspiration from her involvement in the fashion community and Downtown Girls Basketball league—the artist’s line of handbags crafted from basketballs and solar-prints celebrate visual traditions of the WNBA and NBA.
With this project, Bergart remains true to her overall body of work. She uses “the female form and abstract painting language” to communicate the experience of what both artists and athletes call “being in the flow.” Combining this with inspiration drawn from communities surrounding Cranston Street Park, Bergart’s mural design features a high contrast color palette and patterns to express the multi-faceted heritage of the folks who use the court as well as her own unique style.
My HomeCourt 2020: Andrea Bergart is curated by Kate McNamara, PCG Curator-at-Large.
About the Artist
Andrea Bergart lives and works in New York City and her paintings reference diverse visual traditions including African textiles, urban fashion, outlines on playing fields and basketball courts and geometric abstraction. Her involvement in fashion and Downtown Girls Basketball (an all-women basketball community) inspired her to design basketball handbags, as well as paintings and solar prints highlighting WNBA and NBA players and culture.
Bergart received a Fulbright Scholarship to Ghana, West Africa where she researched the bead and textile industries, and has participated in artist residency programs in Senegal and Kenya. Most recently, she received a US embassy grant to travel to the United Arab Emirates. Bergart’s work has been exhibited in New York, California, New Orleans, Boston and the UK and was included in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
