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Self Guided Walks

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Self-Guided Design Tours -  Ongoing Throughout Boston Design Week 

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Public Art in Seaport

Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation I), 1970

by Frank Stella on Seaport Boulevard

Public Art in Boston Seaport

Artworks are free and outdoors to view indefinitely

Visit bostonseaport.xyz/learn to access a virtual art guide on your smartphone.

Look up, look down, there’s art all around. Take yourself on a stroll to see the public art on view in Seaport. Throughout the neighborhood, you’ll find striking murals, surrealist sculpture, and more artful moments to enjoy.  From the abstract, geometric work of Frank Stella to a bold portrait installation highlighting Bostonians, there’s so much to discover.

Seaport is committed to bringing bold, dynamic works from established artists and up-and-comers to the neighborhood. Through juried competitions like Design Seaport, partnerships with local organizations and artist commissions, Seaport continues to build a collection of public art that engages, inspires and sparks conversation within the community.

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Charles Riverboat Company: Architectural Cruise

Charles Riverboat Company: Architectural Cruise

Lechmere Canal Park at Cambridge Side 

Resumes May 27th

https://charlesriverboat.com/tours/architecture-cruises/  

 

This 2-hour tour, hosted by Charles Riverboat Company, offers spectacular views of historic and contemporary architecture along Boston Harbor, the Charles River Locks, and the Charles River basin. The tour— narrated by a guide from Boston By Foot and co-sponsored by BSA Space, a center for architecture and design—includes landmarks such as Marriott’s Custom House, the Prudential Building, and the Hancock tower, as well as cutting-edge contemporary design by today’s top architects. 

 

Architecture Cruises depart from Lechmere Canal Park at Cambridge Side. The ticket booth and boat departure are located outside the doors by the food court.

 

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Underground at InkBlock

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, by Problak X Marka27

Underground at Ink Block

90 Traveler Street, Boston, MA 02118 

Detailshttps://undergroundinkblock.com/about-2 

 

Underground at Ink Block located under the highway and is easily accessible using public transportation and by pedestrian pathways from both the South End and South BostonSpace is free and outdoors to enjoy indefinitely. 

 

Located under the highway between the city’s South End and South Boston neighborhoods. This urban park, cultural attraction and mixed-use parking facility is a space unlike anything seen before in this region. Underground at Ink Block is the successful transformation of an 8-acre underpass located between Boston’s South End and South Boston neighborhoods into an active urban park, cultural attraction and parking amenity. Landscaped pedestrian boardwalks and bicycle paths along the Fort Point Channel create new connections between communities previously separated by highway infrastructure. 

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Summer Still Life with Lobsters and Ferns, 2021 by Daniel Gordon

The Rose Kennedy Greenway

Atlantic Ave, Boston

Details: https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/visit

The Greenway is an adventurous modern park. Curving through the heart of Boston, it’s 1.5 miles of wondrous sights and unforgettable experiences. The public art vision is to bring innovative and contemporary art to Boston through free, temporary exhibitions, engaging people in meaningful experiences, interactions and dialogue with art and each other. This experience also includes food trucks, greenway carousel, beer & wine gardens, and water fountains. 

 

Daniel Gordon, on view till June 2022 

Each composition comprises found images of objects that Gordon prints, constructs, and arranges in three-dimensional collages. Gordon has recently exhibited his sculptural props as artworks in their own right and has created whole environments with his colleagues. 

 

Conservancy gives artists unique opportunities to exhibit bold, new work that considers the possibilities of 21st century Boston.

 

The following artist have been commissioned for 2022:  

  • Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs for the Dewey Square mural on The Greenway.  

  • Yu-Wen Wu for the re-installation of her Lantern Stories.

  • Cheryl Wing-Zi Wongo to create an artwork celebrating the Year of the Tiger, as part of an annual project honoring the Chinese Zodiac on The Greenway. 

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deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum

 Best Of All Possible Worlds, 2018 by Saul Melman

deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum

51 Sandy Pond Rd, Lincoln MA  

Details: https://thetrustees.org/place/decordova

DeCordova is internationally recognized as a major venue for the exhibition and interpretation of modern and contemporary outdoor sculpture. The Sculpture Park occupies the entire campus: 30 acres of beautifully landscaped lawns, forests, fields, gardens, and terraces on a rolling site along the shore of Flint’s Pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts. There are 62 sculptures on display in the Sculpture Park. The Sculpture Park reveals to visitors a cross-section of how contemporary artists work outdoors, and how outdoor art enters into complex dialogues with sites and environmental conditions.  

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Now + There

Breathe Life 3, by Problak (Rob Gibbs)

Now + There

 Sites are free and outdoors to view indefinitely 

Details: https://www.nowandthere.org/projects 

 

​Now + There supports artists and the public to create “bold public art experiences that open minds, conversations, and spaces across Boston, resulting in a more open, equitable, and vibrant city.” They are a public art curator challenging Boston’s cultural identity through compelling projects and artistic risks. The projects are temporary and sight-specific, hence the name. 

 

Public installations currently on view: 

  • To Each Era Its Art. To Art, Its Freedom. by Jose Dávila, located across from the New England Aquarium at 250 Atlantic Ave, Boston, MA

  • Patterned Behavior by Silvia López Chavez, located on the Charles River Esplanade near the Mass Ave. Bridge.  

  • Breathe Life 3 by Problak (Rob Gibbs), located at 808 Tremont Street

  • Augment by Nick Cave, located at 555 Columbia Ave.

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Mount Auburn Cemetery

Mount Auburn Cemetery

580 Mt Auburn St, Cambridge

Detailshttps://mountauburn.org/visit/enjoy-mount-auburn/

There are many ways to experience Mount Auburn. It is a wonderful place to walk, to push a stroller, to look for wildlife, or to enjoy a bit of tranquility. We offer printed and electronic materials to help you learn more about the Cemetery’s history, the notable people buried here, the many monuments and buildings, and our plant collections. We also offer suggestions for exploring the Cemetery with young children. 

If your main interest in coming to Mount Auburn is to take a leisurely stroll, the Cemetery offers miles of roads and paved paths to explore. We have two designated walking paths: an inner loop of 1 mile and outer loop of 2 miles.

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Forest Hills Cemetery

Entrance

Forest Hills Cemetery

95 Forest Hills Ave, Jamaica Plain, MA

Detailshttp://www.foresthillscemetery.com/self-guided-scholars-tour/

​Forest Hills Cemetery is one of the finest examples of the garden cemetery in the United States. It was founded in 1848 to provide a magnificent park-like setting to bury and remember family and friends. Set among the important jewels of Greater Boston’s “Emerald Necklace”— the linked collection of parks and green spaces (the “jewels”) that ring the city — Forest Hills Cemetery is a treasure trove of natural splendor and man-made beauty. In recognition of its unique qualities, Forest Hills Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. A guide book is available on their website as you walk through the cemetery authored by cultural and design historian Elise Ciregna, PhD. 

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New England Landscape Design & History Association

South End Walking Tour: James Hayes Park

New England Landscape Design & History Association (NELDHA) South End Walking Tour

 

Detailshttps://www.neldha.org/walking-tours/walking-tour-south-end

The route is approximately 2 miles long.

It can be covered at a leisurely pace in 2 hours.

​NELDHA’s self-guided walking tour of Boston’s South End Green Spaces, takes the visitor into a neighborhood of historic residential and institutional properties, including a sampling of the historic garden squares along with newer parks and green spaces. Originally the South End of Boston was a narrow strip of land called the "Neck", which connected the Shawmut Peninsula of Boston to the Roxbury mainland. In the mid-nineteenth century the City of Boston filled in the South End to remedy a housing shortage. Today the South End is one of the largest urban Victorian neighborhoods in the United States.  

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Michele Boshar - Andover Village Square Mural

Untitled by Edward Granger, located 45-49 Ward St. in Salem

North of Boston - Murals

Detailshttp://northofboston.org/murals-in-the-area/

​The North of Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, Inc. (NBCVB) is a private, nonprofit, membership based organization responsible for promotion of Essex County as a travel destination.  Their website hosts a treasure trove collection of more than 100 of  the region’s outdoor, walkable murals available free to the public at all times in 15 different communities. 

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