Boston Art Commission

Public art organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources.
Find sources: "Boston Art Commission" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

The Boston Art Commission

The Boston Art Commission, established in 1890, exercises legal authority to approve and site new public art on property owned by the City of Boston. Woven through the urban landscape, site-specific artworks identify Boston as a place with long history and a great capacity for innovation. These artworks, both permanent and temporary, range from traditional and new media public art pieces to municipal design elements, such as wayfinding systems and artistic lighting. In addition, the Art Commission has care and custody of all paintings, murals, statues, bas-reliefs, sculptures, monuments, fountains, arches and other permanent structures intended for ornament or commemoration on City property. It is the conviction of the Boston Art Commission that, in order to engender and support a thriving artistic consciousness within the city, community involvement shall extend beyond everyday appreciation to meaningful engagement in the creation, evolving interpretation and ongoing care of artworks throughout Boston's neighborhoods.

The Art Commission is appointed by the Mayor and consists of nine Boston residents, each nominated by a Boston cultural institution. Art Commission meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month.[1]

## Collections

[edit]

Boston's wide range of public art works mirror key cultural debates and the ever-progressing political and social conditions of the city and the nation.[2] Today, artists and community members work with the Mayor's Office and the Boston Art Commission to ensure that Boston's public art conveys the diversity of the city's past and current populations. The community aspect of initiating a piece of public art is critical in Boston and the city emphasizes community organizing and neighborhood projects supported by the Mayor's office through Neighborhood Coordinators. Therefore, the majority of public art pieces begin as a community effort in which the selection of a site, artist, and design are reliant on community support and participation. Additionally, the Art Commission strives to promote a varied selection of artistic styles and media. Art Commission archives, as well as the City Archives in West Roxbury, are open to the public by appointment.

## PaintBox Program

[edit]

PaintBox aims to highlight local artists within their community and, in doing so, brighten up the streets and deter the vandalization of utility boxes.[3] Through PaintBox, the Art Commission asks Boston artists to get out on the streets of their neighborhoods and help create an ongoing dialogue about art by painting utility boxes. The individual boxes may vary in theme and technique depending on the artist, but as the program is city-wide, PaintBox has become a dynamic art installation in itself. This program is privately funded through corporate donations and uses no tax dollars.

|  |

|
|

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Public Meetings and the Boston Art Commission". City of Boston. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
2. ^ "Public Art Projects in Boston". City of Boston. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
3. ^ "PaintBox". City of Boston. Retrieved September 15, 2022.

## External links

[edit]

* Boston Art Commission[usurped] \- official website
* City of Boston: Arts & Culture

* v
* t
* e

Public art in Boston

Works|

* Appeal to the Great Spirit
* Army Nurses Memorial
* Arthur Fiedler Memorial
* Bagheera Fountain
* Beacon Hill Monument
* Boston Common Tablet
* Boston Irish Famine Memorial
* Boston Massacre Monument
* Boston Public Garden Flagpole Base
* Boston Women's Memorial
* Boy and Bird Fountain
* Brewer Fountain
* Bust of Patrick Collins
* Bust of Richard Cushing
* Charles Eliot Memorial
* Charlestown Civil War Memorial
* Charlestown Vietnam Veterans Memorial
* China Trade Gate
* City Carpet
* Death and the Sculptor
* Declaration of Independence Tablet
* Democratic Donkey
* Dolphins of the Sea
* Dorchester Heights Monument
* Echo of the Waves
* Edwin Upton Curtis Memorial
* Emancipation
* Emancipation Memorial†
* The Embrace
* Ether Monument
* Firemen's Memorial
* The Founders Memorial
* George Robert White Memorial
* George Thorndike Angell Memorial
* Harbor Fog
* Hotel Vendome Fire Memorial
* Hungarian Revolution Memorial
* Indian Hunter
* James J. and Helen Storrow Memorial
* Japanese Lantern
* John Barry Tablet
* John Boyle O'Reilly Memorial
* Lotta Fountain
* Make Way for Ducklings
* Marvin E. Goody Memorial
* Massachusetts Fallen Firefighters Memorial
* Massachusetts Korean War Memorial
* Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial
* New England Holocaust Memorial
* Old North Memorial Garden
* A Once and Future Shoreline
* Oneida Football Club Monument
* Parkman Plaza
* The Partisans
* Pope John Paul II Memorial
* Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
* Small Child Fountain
* Soldiers and Sailors Monument
* Statler Fountain
* Temple Bell
* Thermopylae
* The Teammates
* The Tortoise and the Hare
* Triton Babies Fountain
* World War I Memorial
* World War II Memorial
* Charlestown
* Fenway–Kenmore

| Portrait
statues|

* Aristides
* Red Auerbach
* William Francis Bartlett
* Phillips Brooks
* Robert Burns
* Thomas Cass
* Christopher Columbus
* Beacon Hill
* North End†
* William Ellery Channing
* John Singleton Copley
* James Michael Curley
* Tony DeMarco
* Charles Devens
* Mary Dyer
* John Endecott
* Leif Erikson
* Edward Everett
* David Farragut
* Benjamin Franklin
* William Lloyd Garrison
* John Glover
* Edward Everett Hale
* Alexander Hamilton
* Joseph Hooker
* Anne Hutchinson
* John F. Kennedy
* Tadeusz Kościuszko
* Henry Cabot Lodge
* Horace Mann
* Samuel Eliot Morison
* Bobby Orr
* George S. Patton
* Wendell Phillips
* William Prescott
* Josiah Quincy III
* Paul Revere
* Bill Russell
* Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
* Charles Sumner
* Maurice J. Tobin
* David I. Walsh
* Joseph Warren
* George Washington
* Daniel Webster
* Kevin White
* John Winthrop

|

Related|

* Boston Art Commission
* Graffiti in Boston

Key: † No longer extant or on public display
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template