The city will unveil its Chick Corea mural on Thursday, November 5, with a ribbon cutting from 4 to 6 p.m. at the mural site at Everett Avenue and Chestnut Street, under the Tobin Bridge. The event is free and open to the public.
The mural honors the jazz pianist and composer, who was born in Chelsea in 1941 and died in 2021 after a career that included the Miles Davis band, Return to Forever and more than two dozen Grammy awards. The lead artist is Max Corona, who works as MaxPro. The city commissioned the piece through the New England Foundation for the Arts and its 2025 Making It Public program for Massachusetts municipalities, which paid for the work and trained the city on how to run an artist selection.
Getting there
- When: Thursday, November 5, 4 to 6 p.m.
- Where: Everett Avenue at Chestnut Street, under the Tobin Bridge.
- Free parking: Williams School lot, 180 Walnut Street.
- Metered parking: the lot under the bridge directly across from the mural, with the entrance on Second Street.
How the mural came about
The project started as a request for a statue. Councillor Todd Taylor’s Order 2610 asked the City Manager to explore a Corea statue, and the administration answered in March that it would commission a mural called Keys to Chelsea on the underpass beside the site of Corea’s boyhood home, with a statue still under exploration. The call to artists asked them to interpret Corea’s legacy through innovation, excellence, cultural pride and creativity while reflecting the city’s immigrant and working class identity. Our September story has the background, including how the Corea mural compares with the $200,000 bronze statue of boxer John Ruiz funded this year through the Community Preservation Act.
The city has not released images of the finished wall ahead of the ceremony.