Community Engagement
Mary-Liz Murray
N+T Asks: How can art offer hope to artists and ...

On April 24, 2020, we hosted our fourth N+T Asks conversation. This week Assistant Curator Leah Triplett Harrington asked you and our guests Stephanie Cardon and Charla Jones, "How does art offer hope to artists and the public?" Click to watch or listen to the full conversation.

N+T Asks: How can art offer hope to artists and the public?
Critical Reflections & Opinion
Leah Triplett Harrington
Virtual Studio Visit | Zsuzsanna Varga-Szegedi

We’re working from home too, which means curating from the kitchen table. Click to read about our first virtual studio visit with interdisciplinary artist Zsuzsanna Varga-Szegedi whose work blending media to “analyze” absence, distortion, and distance is particularly poignant during this time. Click to read more about Zsuzi and her perspective on “possibility”

Virtual Studio Visit | Zsuzsanna Varga-Szegedi
Community Engagement
Mary-Liz Murray
N+T Asks: What can artists do right now?

On April 17, 2020, we welcomed artist and curator Rachel Allen, social change designer and founder of DS4SI, Kenny Bailey, and over 80 of you into a conversation exploring the question: “What can artists do right now?”

N+T Asks: What can artists do right now?
Community Engagement
Mary-Liz Murray
N+T Asks: What does "care" mean right now?

We were glad to have special guests artist Stephen Hamilton (2018 Public Art Accelerator and creator of The Founders Project) and Tiffany Cogell, a driven advocate and community organizer (and one of the powerful women featured in Elisa Hamilton’s 2017 project Slideshow) join us for our second installment of N+T Asks and help us answer: “What does care mean right now?”

N+T Asks: What does "care" mean right now?
Community Engagement
Mary-Liz Murray
N+T Asks: What does "public" mean right now?

On April 3, 2020, we launched our new online conversation series "N+T Asks." We were excited to welcome artist Silvia Lopez Chavez, Program Director of Public Art at New England Foundation for the Arts, Kim Szeto, and more than 75 participants from across the cultural sector as we asked: “What does public mean right now?”

N+T Asks: What does "public" mean right now?

Valuing art over policy, and action over talk, at the Public Art Network (PAN) pre-conference

Having recently visited Chicago for the Americans for the Arts Public Art Network pre-conference N+T director Kate Gilbert calls on Greater Boston to create bold, temporary projects during the 2016 conference. 

It’s understandable how a public art freak from Boston can get cultural envy visiting Chicago. Rich in monumental, plaza-anchoring sculpture and steeped in a history of financial and political backing for the arts, Chicago gives us pause, asks us to look at our challenges, and ultimately calls us to be a bolder, unified Greater Boston.

Valuing the Artist's Vision First

How will artists be part of placemaking and public art in Boston? On May 6, 2015 we hosted the"Where's the Art?" panel at the Boston Center of the Arts to discuss just that. Moderated by our director Kate Gilbert, artists Cedric Douglas, Megan McMillan, Liz Nofziger, and Rob Trumbour spoke about the definitions of public art and what we can do to support more of it in our communities.

The Big Bowl of Sunshine at Lawn on D

In an art town as small as Boston, worlds often collide. Recently N+T’s own Kate Gilbert sat down with fellow SMFA alum Thomas Stevenson to discuss his latest project, “Living Room”, commissioned by theLawn on D at Gilbert’s suggestion. The following is an excerpt of the conversation between artist and curator about how “Living Room” came to be, about fear in public spaces, and about learning to be flexible when you come upon big rocks in your tiny sandbox.

Know your past to chart your future: three successful projects in Boston’s history

As we at Now and There prepare for our first project, we’ve been looking back over some of the more successful temporary public art projects in Boston’s history. After all, you need to know your history before you can chart a new course. For this guest blog post we asked Sarah Hutt, former Director of Director of Public Art in the Office of Cultural Affairs under Mayor Tomas Menino, to choose her top three favorite projects. In the essay below Hutt focuses on the years 2001–2002 around the time of the Office’s Boston Cultural Agenda Fund that funded over 100 projects in Boston.

MOMO brings smart design and color to Boston

In February the Brooklyn/New Orleans street artist MOMO arrived in Boston in the midst of Snowpocalypse ‘15, an unrelenting series of snowstorms and freezing temperatures that left Boston under 93” of snow. Undaunted by it all, MOMO completed a massive 250’ x 34’ mural over eighteen nights in the lobby of Boston’s iconic John Hancock Building bringing his signature combination of blending techniques, harmonious colors and universal forms to warm up the austere lobby and its wintery surrounds.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with him on his fourteenth night of painting to talk about his technique, the challenges he faced and that delicate balance of making a public artwork that's accessible yet not silly. The following is an excerpt from that conversation which was published by our friends at Brooklyn Street Art on March 26.

Now + There

The Here and Now? Now and Later? What's your name again?

We've had a few questions about the name which is understandable. We're playing with a few well-know phrases and asking you, our friends, to think a little differently. Simply put, our name represents two of the most important values of our work: the present day and the work's location.

NOW: We're delivering contemporary art -- that's work made today -- and putting it out for you short durations.  It's happening now!
+
THERE: Projects will respond to specific sites -- they're not just plunked down -- and from time to time they might even be in multiple locations. It's over there! And there!