Below is an excerpt from Art in the Open: How Boston's Public Art Boom is Helping to Reframe the Cultural Conversation by Julianna Thibodeaux for Art New England’s September/October 2019 issue. Purchase your copy here.
From a distance, the bronze nudes surrounding a rectangular pool appear unremarkable. Yet step closer, and you will see they are of ambiguous gender, and playfully so: Water spouts from a shin, a forearm, or even a can on the chest of one of the reclining figures. Nicole Eisenman’s installation, Grouping of Works from Fountain, purchased by the Boston real estate development firm Samuels & Associates for its 401 Park development in the Fenway neighborhood, has the potential to generate conversations about our preconceptions and narrow views around gender — even if Bostonians are not used to having such discussions as a result of public art. While the Eisenman installation will no doubt become a fixture, it is just one instance of much broader, more dynamic efforts across the city to deploy art as a catalyst for civic engagement, not just beautification. From murals transforming blighted areas into outdoor art galleries of unparalleled beauty to augmented reality installations that take viewers back in time, Boston is alive with art that is accessible to all.
Two organizations are at the core of Boston’s public art boom: the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the 1 1/2-mile-long park; and Now + There, which places public art throughout the city…While the Greenway’s art program is confined to the park itself, Now + There places public art throughout the city. Now + There’s executive director, Kate Gilbert-who is herself an artist-also saw the need for social engagement, but of a different kind. She looks at where public art can make an impact, “especially in neighborhoods that right now don’t have access to contemporary art and [where residents’ aren’t going to take a bus to a train to a bus to a more public or privileged space,” she says.
Among the city’s smallest parks, Central Wharf Park sits like an oasis across the boulevard from the bustling wharf with its blasting boar horns, lines of tourists and ubiquitous street vendors. Commenting on boatbuilding and its connections to Boston’s waterfront, Growth Rings, a temporary installation in the park created by sculptor Oscar Tuazon and guest curated by Pedro Alonzo, enhances the rejuvenating aspect of the greenspace and its copse of trees. The installation’s three vertical rings (18’ 16’8”, and 15’5” each in diameter), shaped from strips of Douglas fir, are slightly submerged into the ground so that visitors who traverse the park must pass through them.