One of his mosaics is in the tallest building in Spain. He built the bench that surrounds Ulysses S. Grant’s Tomb on the Upper West Side. Other public sculptures of his are located in Scotland, Chicago, Tennessee, and all over New York City. But Pedro Silva would never want his sculptures to be regarded solely as “his.” Almost all of his art involves working with local communities—kids, neighborhood residents, and whoever else stops by to help.

This includes the Animal Park at 40 Montgomery Street in New York City’s Lower East Side, a small park with several tile-covered sculptures built by Silva and volunteers in 1965-66 with the help of the Henry Street Settlement. After almost 40 years of wear, Silva was recently commissioned by the Henry Street Settlement to restore the Animal Park, as usual, with the help of local children and community volunteers. Chalkboard spoke to Silva about the Animal Park project and his career as an artist and teacher.

Chalkboard: Before we talk specifically about the Animal Park sculptures, tell me about how you got started as a teacher.

Pedro Silva: It’s a long story! It started in the 1960s, when I was teaching in Harlem at an organization called HARYOU ART, which was set up as a branch of a community self-help program. This organization went in the streets and picked up kids that had dropped out of school and offered them money to learn whatever they wanted to learn. So, they offered a sculpture class, for which I was the teacher.

CH: And how did you become involved with the Henry Street Settlement in the 1960s?

PS: I was teaching with a friend of mine and we were thinking “What else can we do for these kids?” and we saw some empty lots and found out we could rent them for a dollar a year and we started designing playgrounds for the kids in the neighborhood. We had a very little budget, so we went with the class in the streets and picked up any kind of materials we could find, bought a couple bags of cement, and built these playgrounds. As we were doing this, people would come check it out, and I said “Would you like to help us?” Many people came to help, and I think that was the beginning of my community involvement projects. Then I brought the idea to the Henry Street Settlement, they loved the idea, they gave me a teaching position, and we started designing a playground here. That was 1965.

CH: Is it true that the kids you worked with on the sculptures made a portrait of you?

PS: Yeah, they did my portrait, and they designed the other pieces, too. I blew them up with cement and construction rods. Some of them we decorated with tiles, and most of them were painted.

CH: And how were you reunited with these pieces?

PS: Well, this year the Henry Street Settlement contacted me to restore the pieces because they weren’t in very good shape, and also some people in these nearby houses wanted to completely throw out everything. And of course, most of this neighborhood has been here for many years and the sculptures are part of their history. Also, many people who grew up here came around when we were working and said “Oh, I did this!” I have some old pictures of the playground being built originally and they found photos of themselves when they were 9, 10 years old. So, first of all, we fought to save the pieces. Finally, they decided to keep five pieces. Some others were moved to the gardens at the Henry Street Settlement and some others were spread out.

CH: It seems like, in New York, you’re interested in creating public sculptures for mostly low-income communities.

PS: Yes. To bring some beauty. So many kids lived in the streets and had nothing to do, but had a lot of energy and used it in a destructive way because they didn’t know anything else. That motivated me to start doing these projects. That’s another part of my philosophy. Generally, city officials come and put a piece of sculpture in front of your house. Like it or not, you have to look at it and live with it every day. So, when I do a project I always talk first with the community. I contact community centers and schools and then we start doing workshops showing how easy it is to work with tiles, and then invite people to come participate in the big project. With Grant’s Tomb I worked three very long summers and I had an average of 50 people a day volunteer.

For more information on the Animal Park at the Henry Street Settlement, visit www.henrystreet.org and www.tsdigitaldesigns.com/henry_st.html.