Student, Celtic, Redbull team up for Dorchester court
NU student combines her passions for good
Kaiya Santos, a sophomore at Northeastern University, is fascinated by art, basketball and giving back to the community.
The Worcester native is combining those passions in a project that will redesign and refurbish Fenelon Street Playground in partnership with Celtics player Jaylen Brown, the city Parks and Recreation Department and Red Bull.
Brown and the city recently announced Santos as the winner of Red Bull’s “Get In The Paint” contest that had artists submit graphic designs of how they envisioned the future of the Dorchester basketball court.
“It really does feel awesome knowing that my art is going to be helping people because I feel like there’s a big stigma around art and people think that it’s a little silly or useless,” Santos told the Herald. “I like when I am able to make an impact with it, which hasn’t happened much.”
Santos beat out 10 other finalists. She said she had submitted three designs, with her second being the winning selection.
Brown and Red Bull approached the city about the court project last summer, with the design competition starting in the fall, said Nate Frazee, project manager for the Parks and Recreation Department.
Frazee called Santos’ design “balanced” and “very vibrant” with multitone blues, lightning bolts and funky zigzags. It will translate well onto the playing surface, he said.
Frazee sat on a review panel with Brown, community members and the painters behind the project. Brown told the panel the blues reminded him of Terrence Clarke, Frazee said.
Clarke was a standout basketball player at Rivers School in Weston before going on to play for the University of Kentucky. He died at age 19 in a car crash in April 2021, just months before the NBA Draft.
City basketball courts have a life expectancy of about 15 years, Frazee said.
“This really cool, compelling court is going to have an impact on a full generation,” he said. “People are going to be able to talk and really get to know the process and feel engaged in it. That’s the power of it.”
Those involved with the project are working on a timeline, but it’s looking like the groundbreaking will be this spring before the court is unveiled in July, said Becky Kaleo, senior communications manager for Red Bull Media House.
The project, Santos said, is providing valuable lessons that she will carry with her in the future. Santos said she is scheduling meetings with Elevated
Thought, a Lawrence-based arts and social justice nonprofit, to determine how her winning design will be applied to the court. This is her first time
working on a basketball court.
Parks, like Fenelon Street Playground, are essential assets to the community because of how
much the public uses them, Santos said.
“For the younger generation, I think it’s really important to give them resources,” she said. “Having
a bright, colorful court for them to play on that’s been refurbished and redone, I think it’s going to motivate them to be using it more often.”