The first-ever Boston Public Art Triennial is coming

Only a handful of cities in the United States have had the audacity, courage, and support to put on a public art triennial, a free once-every-three-year celebration of international and local public art. Public art triennials are a proven catalyst for social change, a spark for innovation, and a meaningful contributor to the cultural and economic vibrancy of a city.

In May 2025, Now + There, in partnership with the City of Boston and hundreds of city-wide partners, will add Boston to that very short, very important list of triennial cities.

The Boston Public Art Triennial will deliver 15 compelling new public art commissions across the city, created by visionary local, national, and international artists. Works ranging from sculptures to interactive exhibits will extend to hundreds of performance-based community-led programs in multiple Boston neighborhoods. For six months, hundreds of thousands of people from Boston, New England, and beyond will come together to experience the power and provocation of brilliant public art.

The Boston Public Art Triennial is a major step in Now + There’s eight-year quest to change a prevailing narrative about Boston – that it is an economically, racially, and culturally closed city by changing its status to that of an open and equitable public art city.

Kara Elliott-Ortega, the City of Boston’s Chief of Arts and Culture, underscores the role of public art and a triennial in Boston,

“...Public art brings people together, creates conversations, and can rearrange our relationship to public space. A city-wide effort like the Boston Public Art Triennial can help us realize how much agency we really have over civic spaces…That sense of possibility and connection carries through to other parts of our lives, including our hopes for Boston and each other.”

A diverse team and distributed model

A dedicated team of international, national, and local curators and artists are the creative force behind the Triennial, crafting its theme and commissioning works of art that reflect who we are as Bostonians and as engaged, caring citizens of the world.  

A strategic hub and spoke model will distribute artworks and hundreds of associated programs throughout the Downtown area and deep in the neighborhoods of East Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. Intentional partnerships and feedback mechanisms will ensure community wealth for artists and residents, building on Now + There’s commitment to equity and inclusivity. The combined structure includes the three following groups: 

+ Curatorial Advisory Group supporting the Artistic Director and Curator in determining a theme and artist selection. (Keep scrolling to meet them.)

+ Community Advisory Group (paid) providing feedback on sites and grassroots evaluation, recommending partners, and supporting intersectional programming. (Meet them below.)

+ Triennial Advisory Group including artists, community leaders, funders, and public art experts connecting the first two groups and participating in an annual N+T Board meeting. (Meet them here.)

The combined result: a feedback loop of accountability and organizational sustainability.

Fueled by Bostonians for Boston

The vision of the Boston Public Art Triennial is being realized because of bold Bostonians, including Founding Donor, Alnoba Lewis Family Foundation. Additional funders include Joyce Linde, Barbara + Amos Hostetter; Stewards, City of Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, Lisa Tung + Spencer Glendon, and Margaret + Tomas Bergstrand; Patrons, the Wagner Foundation; and Sustainers, New England Foundation for the Arts’ Public Art Program With Funding From The Barr Foundation, and the Richard K. Lubin Family Foundation.

Their courageous support builds on major gifts from multi-year Now + There donors, Accelerator Program supporters Joyce Linde, Jim and Audrey Foster, and contributors to N+T’s general operations, including the Barr Foundation, the Wagner Foundation, The Barr-Klarman MA Arts Initiative, and other anonymous supporters.

 

We need you

Only a few cities in America have ever put on a Public Art Triennial. Why? Because it’s hard, it’s complicated, and it takes an entire city and its citizens pulling together to make it happen. That’s where you come in. We need your ideas, your suggestions for where you want to see the work, your willingness to help, and whatever donations you can spare.

Keep scrolling for more ways to get involved in this major step for Boston!

 
 

Values-driven curation and collaboration

Public art plays a critical role in fostering vital conversations, forging new relationships, and shaping our shared spaces. And when public art is created by artists and curators who are diverse in race, age, gender, sexual identity, ability, and lived experiences, it further motivates, affirms, and challenges us.

We are proud to announce our Triennial curatorial lead team. Artistic Director Pedro Alonzo (b. 1971, Tijuana, Mexico), an independent curator and frequent N+T Guest Curator, is renowned for his exhibitions that move beyond traditional museum spaces. He is joined by Tess Lukey (b. 1993, Worcester, MA), a Curator and member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah, a practicing ceramicist, and the Associate Curator of Native American Art at The Trustees of Reservations.

Alonzo and Lukey are working with the Curatorial Advisory Group to craft the Triennial theme and identify potential artists. Advisory Group members include:

+ Dan Byers
John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University
+ Jeffrey De Blois
Associate Curator and Publications Manager
Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston
+ Jose Falconi
Professor of Arts and Human Rights
University of Connecticut Storrs
President of Cultural Agents, Inc.
+ Karin Goodfellow
Director of Public Art
City of Boston
+ Mary Jane Jacob
Director, Institute for Curatorial Research and Practice
School of Art Institute of Chicago
+ Jessica May
Vice President, Art and Exhibitions
The Trustees of Reservations
Artistic Director, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
+ Kymberly Pinder
Ph.D., Professor of Art and History of Art
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean
Yale School of Art
+ Trevor Smith
Associate Director
Multisensory Experience
Curator of the Present Tense
Peabody Essex Museum
+ Lisa Tung
Executive Director
MAAM and N+T Board member

 
 

Critical city-wide partnerships

Community engagement is essential to the success of the Triennial and to ensuring that its 15 commissions are site-appropriate. Our proven engagement strategy is called REACH. It stands for Respond, Energize, Activate, Collaborate, and Honor each public space and its community members.

Paid Community Captains help engage community members, hold N+T accountable to the community's needs in the development of programming, and assist in the evaluation process of determining the success of the Triennial. They include:

+ Olawumi Akinwumi
Roxbury
+ Anny Thach
Dorchester
+ Tanya Nixon-Silberg
Roxbury and Jamaica Plain
+ Sean Webster
Roxbury
+ Alfredo Munoz
South End
+ Johane Alexis-Phanor
Mattapan
+ Edosa Osemwegie
Mattapan
+ Audrey Seraphin
Allston
+ Long Tong
Roslindale and Jamaica Plain
+ Farah Lachmi
East Boston
+ Magdiela Matta
Roslindale and East Boston

Partner organizations with aligned artistic values and a commitment to supporting audience engagement and ensuring Triennial art is both relevant and compelling.  Are you with an organization that has long-standing relationships within a community, a track record for operational excellence, and deep partnership experience? We’d love to hear from you! While the type of partnerships will vary, we are committed to collaborative goal setting and ideation; sharing empathy in a values alignment exercise; creating mutual understanding by identifying assets and key contributors; and reinforcing our mutual commitment by drafting and signing an agreement that reflects every part of our support process. 

Financial support is another critical kind of partnership! Be part of a first for Boston and support the Triennial with a charitable donation. 

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Learn about the Boston Public Art Triennial announcements and new engagement opportunities.

 
 

Frequently Asked Questions

You probably have questions, we have some answers, and there will be more answers to come. For now, here’s what we know.

  • The first edition of the Boston Public Art Triennial will be primarily in the city of Boston, with the possibility of a Cambridge location. The Triennial will use a hub and spoke model with projects in a centralized downtown location and radiating along transit lines to other projects and related programming in Boston’s neighborhoods.

  • By definition, a Triennial occurs every three years. The first edition is scheduled for May through October 2025; following that, 2028 and beyond.

  • The fifteen artists for the 2025 Boston Public Art Triennial have not been selected yet and will be announced closer to the festival’s anticipated start. Visitors should expect visionary artists commissioned for site and context--specific art installations that highlight the innovative spirit of Greater Boston, the diversity of lived-experiences of its people, and rewrite the Boston narrative.

  • The goals of the Triennial are to:

    1) Support established and up-and-coming artists in the creation of singular, compelling, and site-specific public artworks, 2) Catalyze social change, 3) Spark innovation, 4) Contribute to the cultural and economic vibrancy of the city, 5) Ultimately transform Boston into an open and dynamic Public Art City.

  • We’re so glad you asked! More opportunities will arise as the Triennial progresses. Please join our mailing list or register to become a volunteer here, and support Boston’s first Public Art Triennial with a gift today.

  • The Triennial Advisory Group is a non-voting group of nine individuals who believe in the power of public art to spark change and the lasting impact a public art festival can have in making Boston a more vibrant and equitable city.

    Members of the group, Triennial Advisors (TAs), are chosen by Executive Director Kate Gilbert to act as a sounding board in shaping the first festival, the Boston Public Art Triennial (working title). They contribute advice on areas of expertise: public art, community or civic engagement, and fundraising.

    Their participation and name lend credibility to the effort, and they act as ambassadors of the Triennial project and Now + There. Learn more about the Triennial Advisory group here.

  • Now + There is committed to creating 15 new anchor commissions and including hundreds of related events, programs, and interior exhibits put on by our partners, connected by a unifying theme.

  • Yes, all 15 will be defined as public art — available for view 24/7, free of charge, in accessible locations.

  • Very few. To date, only Desert X (Coachella Valley, CA) and Counterpublic (St. Louis, MO) are truly exterior, public art Triennials like the Boston Public Art Triennial.. With that said, interest in biennials and triennials is growing globally. N+T is a founding member of the newly-formed ‘Ennials Alliance, an informal affiliation that allows cities to exchange resources, best practices, and ideas for ‘ennial organizations focusing on contemporary visual art and culture.

    With generous financial support from a Boston-area foundation, N+T hired nonprofit consulting TDC to conduct extensive research on operational and financial research on peer biennials and triennials from Feb - Aug 2022. Their findings validated the opportunity for Now + There to lead the Boston Public Art Triennial.

  • The Boston Public Art Triennial will engage with fifteen diverse Boston neighborhoods and prominent city landmarks, ensuring that the extraordinary talent and untold stories of Boston are accessible to the public at large.

    The fifteen locations are being carefully selected on a Hub and Spoke model. We believe the joy that comes from these works should be equitably divided between downtown locations (e.g., City Hall Plaza) and neighborhoods where access to contemporary art is infrequent (e.g., Franklin Park). The 2025 Triennial is prioritizing the neighborhoods of East Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan.

  • A team of international, national, and local curators and artists will be at the heart of the Triennial, determining its theme, commissioning excellent works of art, and ensuring that works reflect a commitment to equity and inclusivity.

  • The foundation of all N+T programming, as well as the comprehensive preparation for the 2025 Triennial is grounded in a commitment to community partnership and engagement. Our engagement strategy is encompassed by the acronym REACH to Respond, Energize, Activate, Collaborate, and Honor each public space and its people. For success metrics, we will look to social capital indicators, including community networks, reciprocity, belonging, citizen power, participation, diversity, safety, and values-led activation. Paid Community Captains help engage community members, hold N+T accountable to the community's needs in the development of programming, and assist in the evaluation process of determining the success of the Triennial.

If you have a question not answered here, please drop us a line at info@nowandthere.org.

Image (1): Boston skyline (c) Lance Anderson; Image (2): “Women’s Qualities” Artist Talk with Ghada Amer at Lot Lab, 2023, with “Stay” by Sam Fields in the background (c) Annielly Camargo; Image (3): Nick Cave “Augment” Joy Parade, 2019 (c) Faith Ninivaggi; Image (4): Patterned Behavior by Silvia Lopez Chavez in partnership with the Esplanade Association (c) Dominic Chavez.