Natick's Tunnel Of Love Brings Smiles To Commuters

NATICK, MA — Natick's downtown pedestrian bridge linking North and South Avenues has been transformed into a kaleidoscope of color, all made of yarn and all made from local residents. The "Tunnel of Love" public art project was meant to bring color to commuters lives and get the community involved in art.

More than 900 crocheted pieces of art hang over the wire bridge frame and along the fence that overlooks the tracks to Natick's commuter rail. The burst of color is hard to ignore and puts a smile on many passerby's faces. Denise Girardin said, that was the purpose of the project. "We thought of commuters and how dreary their commute can be, always glued to their phones, we wanted this to brighter their days a bit," Girardin said.

Girardin is a local artist with a studio less than a block away from the public art exhibit. She said she was inspired to start the project after seeing a post online of a similar project done in France. "I made it the background of my computer, I kept coming back to it, I don't know why I was so drawn to it, I just was," she said. She decided to try to make it happen and reached out to Karen Perkins of the Morse Institute Library. Perkins runs the stitching club in the library with Fran Weisse and agreed to help get the project going.

The exhibit went up at the end of May and the crocheted pieces have only grown. People have added their own work and placed it on the fence on the bridge. Girardin said about 900 submissions have been made and the response has been incredible. "Every time I look out, there's always someone there," she said, "It really hit a nerve with people." The patterns are mostly flowers, but some technicolor hearts and mandalas are strewn in the mix as well.

A big inspiration for the project's location was the impending MBTA work on the station. "The bridge is this beautiful vintage bridge and it's going to be taken down," she said, "We wanted to give it one last hoorah."

The Tunnel of Love is making waves on social media as well, with dozens of posts under the hashtag #Tunneloflovenatick with people visiting from near and far to spend some time under the crocheted colors.

While the exhibit is beautiful in the summer time, Girardin knows the weather can take it's toll on the yarn. "That's part of the point, it's natural and organic, it's going to fade," she said. The exhibit is set to stay up until the end of August, but Girardin said she's thought of finding the exhibit a permanent home.

More than anything, Girardin said she is happy the exhibit gets the community involved in the arts and is already planning her next public art project, which she hopes will take place in on Adams street.