AR ART GALLERY
THROUGH
YOUR PHONE
How does it work?
Scan the QR code in the frame, using a smart phone camera.
This will take you to a mobile website which will prompt you to a screen which will ask if it’s ok to use the camera to activate the AR reader.
Match the QR image on the phone’s screen to the QR image in the center of the blank frame.
When aligned, the AR will be activated, and artworks and music will be paired for viewing/listening. (the music will first be muted; hit the unmute button on the screen to hear it) Enjoy!
Frame locations
Frame #1, #2
1 Bow Market Way, Somerville MA 02143
Frame #3, #4
The Alley @ SOMERNOVA
28 Dane St, Somerville, MA
Frame #5, #6, #7
Frame #8, #9, #10
1 Westwood Rd, Somerville, MA 02143
Art, design, and technology.
Of the local, for the local.
Mieko Murao created an AR Gallery for everyone to enjoy because all museums were closed during the height of the pandemic. Her idea for featuring local artists and musicians has gained excitement around the community and garnered attention, including the Somerville Museum, which has now contributed works from their archives and artworks for the gallery.
This public AR gallery continues to grow and expand, as does Somerville’s art scene.
Featured artists
Mieko Murao
Mieko Murao is a Co-founder of Graphnetwork, owner of Crane and Turtle, and graduate student at MIT IDM.
She established her graphic design firm at the age of 19, and she has produced numerous design works for major clients in Japan and moved to the US to expand her business in 2011.
Website | Instagram
Credit @im_zogh
Lou Lim
Lou Lim was born in Manila, Philippines and grew up in Orlando, FL. He is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) and registered expressive arts therapist (REAT) with a degree from Lesley University. Some of his art credits include working with Bow Market and the Celebrity Series of Boston. He has also been featured on the GBH’s Curiosity Desk for contributing work with “Play Me, I’m Yours.” He resides in Medford, MA.
a_ronious
Aaron Wetjen-Barry was born in Connecticut in 1983 and moved to Boston in 2001 to attend Emerson College where he majored in Writing with a minor in Visual Art; around this time he began creating abstract art under the name a_ronious. a_ronious has continued to live in Boston for the past 20 years where he’s worked in the local independent music scene while continuing to develop his abstract style of art which has been displayed in various local institutions like the Cyclorama & Piano Craft Gallery as well as many restaurants and musical events. A prolific creator, a_ronious has a large catalog of work ready to show as the city reopens!
Steve Novick
Steve Novick was born in 1966 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He earned a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1988 and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1991. A recipient of Pollock-Krasner and Massachusetts Cultural Council grants, he is a Professor of Art & Design at Suffolk University and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Rayna Lo
Rayna Lo was born in Chicago, IL and resides in Greater Boston, MA. Rayna spent 10+ years working in the pharmaceutical industry before making the switch to art. Eager to connect with her Taiwanese heritage and to share her culture, she studies and teaches Traditional Chinese calligraphy. Through her contemporary lens, she illustrates to connect more with herself.
Samer Khudairi
Samer Khudairi is an artist and writer based out of Boston, Massachusetts. He holds a Bachelors from UMASS-Amherst in Environmental Design with a Minor in Studio Art. He is a multi media journalist covering design, music, community, and food and beverage. His name means "the person who tells stories at night." Samer abides by the mantra: "Live all the lives, love all the peoples."
Featured Musicians
From the catalog of Union Sound
Cliff Notez & Dephrase
Cliff Notez is an award-winning musician & film maker, multidisciplinary digital media & visual artist, owner/founder/musician at HipStory
Rooted in hip-hop, his art tackles the political and the personal, exploring the intimate consequences of a society where black bodies are easily ignored, forgotten, or disregarded. His films have been official selections for 20+ film festivals globally, winning five of them. He became the first musician to be named Musician of the Year for Boston Magazine's Best of Boston.
Dephrase is a Boston-based producer with roots in hip-hop and love for all music. By resampling original material and using heavy analog synthesis, Daniel strives to evoke the soulful feelings of hip-hop through home-grown samples and carefully crafted synths. Tempted by the Golden Era of hip-hop as well as recent happenings in the urban electronic realm, Daniel has recently dove into the music production in an attempt to define human and natural interactions through the creation of sound. He loves to work with musicians and artists of all sorts, broadening his scope of knowledge as well as spreading love and good cheer to others.
kent_williams
kent_williams offers a new take on hip hop’s golden era sound by utilizing analog equipment and vinyl to create a 12-bit collage of wavy sounds. Boom bap drums accompanied by gritty tools like the S950 and SP-404 lay the foundation for a blend of lofi and 90's hip hop.
Migrating to Massachusetts from the Bay Area, kent_williams was introduced to the Boston beat community by Dibia$e. Since then, kent_ has made waves in the city’s fast-rising beat scene.
SRCFLP
A legal alien turned naturalized citizen of the united mind states.
Raised in Los Angeles, a native to the beat scene, his cocktail of beats & bass infuses Boom bap to Lofi hiphop, stripped-down techno, Brazilian batucada to jazz, Noise, and electronica.
His album EKG is a sound-bombing amalgamation of eclectic styles and genres. Its sampling sources span wide from vinyl, cassette, VHS, CDs, modular synthesizers, and field recordings; drawing on J Dilla, Madlib, Kaytranada, Shabazz Palaces, and Four Tet.
Latrell James
Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, James and his brother taught themselves the basics of computer production and he eventually went on to perform on a local level. In 2015 he self-released Twelve, a solo album of exploratory production, socially conscious lyrics, and the first looks at his layered and sometimes trippy approach to making hip-hop. In 2017, James collaborated with Cheerios to come up with "Good Goes Round," and the catchy, life-affirming song garnered James lots of attention.
His EP on vinyl “Under” is now available.
Collaboration with the Somerville Museum
There are 3 frames at the Somerville Museum!
They’re showcasing local students’ work and vintage post card collections with music by local artists.
Emma Alcott’s Students at the East Somerville Community Schools
Artist, David Campbell, featured in the past exhibition, The Art of Observation, is well known for his drawings of everyday cityscapes. Campbell is a local artist who lives and works out of Brickbottom Artists Building and can often be found drawing with his young neighbor, Augustin. They find things they love to draw and spend hours together sketching. This program has evolved into a collaboration with Emily Alcott’s various art classes at the East Somerville Community School. Inspired by David and Augustin’ drawings, these students have been invited to draw everyday scenes and objects of interests to them in and around their home. Students range from 3rd to 8th grade.
Jessica Howard’s Students at Somerville High School
Somerville High School students in Mrs. Howard's art courses interact with Traditional & Digital Media Arts while questioning who can transform the community with Art? The students studied Historical and Contemporary Art Movements while adapting artistic techniques from Master Artists: Matisse to Kehinde Wiley, John Deakin to Agam, and Frank Wright to Billie Eilish, Future, and Pop Celebrities. Students created original pen portraits, and programmed Photoshop to produce original patterns, synthesize layers to evoke a traditional presence of montage, double exposures, paper and oils in a variety of art projects. This work is digital artwork.
Jessica Howard’s Students:
Reeves Beckley
Lily Campbell
Cecelia Crounse
Nyemma DeAndrade
Gabriel Fagundes
Karen H.
Jake Hardy
Madeline Henzer
Jessica Howard
Brendan Jones
Edgar Lopez
Isabella McGlashing
Jason Ntwali
Karolayne Rodrigues
Postcard Titles:
Gilman Square, Somerville, Mass.
Birdseye View from High School grounds, Somerville, Mass. #2220
Davis Square, West Somerville, Mass.
Davis Square Toward Elm St., W. Somerville, Mass.
Davis Square, Somerville, Mass
Union Square and Bow Street looking North, Somerville, Mass.
Highland Road, Somerville, Mass.
Pearson Road, Somerville, Mass.
Highland Ave., Cor. Cedar St., Somerville, Mass.
Broadway, Somerville, Mass.
College Avenue, Somerville, Massachusetts
Gilman Square, Somerville, Mass.
Somerville Theatre, Hobbs Building, West Somerville, Mass.
The Armory, Somerville, Mass.
Somerville Junction showing Derby Desk Co., Somerville, Mass.
Somerville, Mass. Public Library
Old Fort and Fountain, Central Hill Park, Somerville, Mass.
Old Powder House, Powder House Park, Somerville, Mass.
Y.M.C.A. Bldg., Highland Ave., Somerville, Mass.
St. Catherine's Church, Somerville, Mass.
Broadway Park, Somerville, Mass.
Timothy Tufts House, Elm Street. Somerville, Mass.
St. Ann's Church, Winter Hill Business College, Masonic Building
Robinson Round House, Somerville, Mass.
Music
The Union Square Somerville Playlist project explores the music and history of the city of Somerville, Massachusetts. This project was related to the Union Square At Work exhibition, curated by Charan Devereaux at the Somerville Museum.
Musicians:
Jess Hardy, City of Gold
Session Americana, Willing to Be Lucky
Jennifer Kimball, Build You a Barn
Dub Apocalypse, Chemical Dub
Aurora Birch, Haunt Me
The Resophonics, Say Goodbye Again
People Live Here, Droids not Drones
Koudjay, Ayiti
Bolivia Canta, Niño Carita de Lune
Avery Ballotta, Mt. Lafayette
Audrey Ryan, Holding Back
Shepherdess, Blackout
Bad Superstar, Orphelin
Movers & Shakers, Just Lonely Souls
Josh Lederman and the Cambridge/Somerville All-Stars, Seven Years a-Roaming
Keith Cooper, Good Old Modern Me
The Johnny Come Latelies, Marathon Reel/Robert Elliott’s Reel
Nathan Kwan, The Wandering Piper/The Hills of Kowloon
Libana, Tara Mantra Chant
Alison Drasner
Asst. Director at the Somerville Museum
Alison has been serving as the Asst. Director since 2018. During that time she has implemented various updates to systems and processes. She has also been actively facilitating existing and new programs to help the Museum ‘jump’ into the 21st century, including Reading Frederick Douglass and The Basement Project.
Alison comes to us with a Masters in Interior/Exhibition Design from the Corcoran College + Design and years of experience working with museums and galleries from New York to Washington, DC, and her hometown, Framingham, MA. She has been a proud resident of Somerville, MA since 2011 and an artist with a studio in Vernon Street Studios.