With new $3 million grant, Boston wants to diversify public art

Public art in downtown Boston appears to tell one story: George Washington greets visitors in the Public Garden, four-term Mayor Kevin White walks alongside crowds at Faneuil Hall, and James Michael Curley stands a short distance away.

After years of emphasis on the American Revolution and Boston’s Irish history, the city wants to spotlight voices previously left out. Recently, “The Embrace” and upcoming “Chinatown Workers Statues” have “filled some of the gaps in our storytelling,” the city said.

And with a new $3 million grant, the City of Boston wants to continue that work. The Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture announced more than 30 public art initiatives Thursday as part of the “Un-monument | Re-monument | De-monument: Transforming Boston” program.

“Public art can help challenge, reflect, and celebrate our communities, and I am so thrilled to see the work of our grant recipients across our neighborhoods,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement. “This investment in public art programs is groundbreaking and will support our efforts to highlight the many cultures, talents, and histories of our residents.”

The $3 million grant, which the city touts as the largest single investment into public art programming in Boston’s history, comes from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project. Eight other cities received funding: Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Los Angeles, Providence, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon.

“These selected public art projects celebrate diverse voices and perspectives, uplift democracy and justice, and uncover the city’s rich history while examining the complexity of American stories,” the city’s Chief of Arts & Culture Kara Elliott-Ortega said in a statement.

The grant will fund temporary public art installations, free public events, and interactive arts experiences through a multi-year program, the Mayor’s Office said. The eight temporary monuments include a commemoration of the toll of American gun violence and a large Mayan pyramid to honor immigrant communities in the state.

“Stone and bronze have been used for centuries to show what’s important and who matters. Thankfully, those kinds of monuments are increasingly being erected to people whose accomplishments have been left out of our shared origin story,” said Roberto Mighty, “We Were Here Too” artist.

Eight other artists were selected to receive funds for research on future projects, including a tribute to Ella Little Collins, Malcolm X’s older sister, a memorial on the Vietnamese diaspora experience, and a project about Crispus Attucks, a Black victim of the Boston Massacre.

The grant also funds commissions with curatorial partners around the city and free public programming — a speaker series of public conversations at “The Embrace.”

Professors Joshua Bennett and Imani Perry will hold the first conversation, “Poetry, Public Art, and the Politics of Memory,” on July 31 at 5:30 p.m.