Emerald Necklace Transect – A Walk Through Boston’s Public Art

Map

Essay

Boston is a city of vibrant diversity and culture; however, the publicness and recognition of these various historical and cultural roots vary in acceptance. By dissecting and observing some of the many public art installations across Boston, I was able to comprehend how each piece of art was both a representation of a community’s indigenous roots, but also an emblem of hope after systemic and continued mistreatment of minority groups. I had originally approached this project with the mindset that I was going to be examining how public “public art” is in a city as gentrified and segregational as Boston. Reflecting on my findings, I am in awe to see that my opinions of publicness changed depending on the history of the murals themselves. When researching multiple of my sites, I gained more knowledge on the demographics of particular areas of Boston and learned more about the various histories and cultures each bureau contains. It was fascinating to see how one street could vividly display the predominant Caribbean roots of one area and then the adjacent street would depict murals regarding African-American rights and civil rights movements.

Relational landscapes pertain to the way the built environment and implementations made by humans have served to promote or prevent unity, inclusion, and accessibility. We discussed how multidimensional the term relational landscape is and how many elements combine to create this concept. Previous to this course and our lessons on racialized landscapes, I was never familiarized with the idea that the built environment and urban planning practices could be segregational. Moreover, never had I realized how public art could, too, be considered one of the many elements of the landscape around us that can both encourage acceptance and recognition while also creating a symbol of generational and historic segregation and lack of integration of minority groups in Boston. Every public art installation carried and promoted a different story, culture, and history of a particular indigenous group or cultural phenomena. 

The most interesting pieces to me were many of the implementations in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain as they clearly displayed the historical gentrification and displacement of thousands of people of color throughout the development of Boston. The murals and other artworks found in these two communities significantly centered on African-American and Latin American roots predominant in these areas. The landscape of Boston, politically, socially, economically, has systemically made continual efforts to impair and strip minority groups of opportunity, which is vibrantly displayed in many of these public pieces. From the Roxbury Love sign that was demolished to make way for residential units to the Breathe Life 2 mural that depicted a young Black girl surrounded by notepads and books, the murals throughout Boston told the story of the suppression of people of color across the nation, but particularly in this city. 

My gauge of how “public” these murals were changed throughout this project as at first, I aimed to see how the built environment, like the campus of Northeastern, served as a barrier to certain displays of art and how they only made them accessibly to certain groups and were thus segregational. However, after researching more about the murals that mainly stand in communities with predominantly minority demographics, the level of “publicness” that I felt each piece encompassed was more on the basis of whose stories are acknowledged in this piece, which community of color is being represented, and which minorities are given recognition in this installation. In pieces like the Peace Dove and Peace Garden initiatives, artists and community members collaborated to create a communal emblem of hope after a number of tragedies occurred in the neighborhood due to violence. Not only were these projects implemented in the more public areas including at public school fronts or on sidewalks, but they were also geared towards lifting the spirits of the neighborhood and created a group symbol of pride and community. 

Northeastern University’s campus served as an example of a relational landscape in my transect in a multitude of ways. The public murals I was observing throughout the Boston areas, particularly in Roxbury, were all symbolizations of Black suppression and segregation, however, also displays of pride and hope. The Roxbury community was once the thriving bastion of black culture and the home to Malcolm X, the leader of the civil rights movement. However, now the area has become synonymous with the vast displacement of Roxbury natives mainly due to Northeastern University. The African-American population in Roxbury, one of the most predominantly Black neighborhoods in Boston, declined from nearly 63 percent in 2000 to 55 percent in 2010; all while the population of whites grew from less than 5 percent to nearly 7 percent (Sasani). With Northeastern having limited campus housing, students are increasingly forced to move to the Boston neighborhoods surrounding the campus including Roxbury, Mission Hill, and Fenway. As Northeastern’s enrollment continues to increase, as does this displacement of locals. The more students living off-campus, which increased over 25 percent between 2011 and 2015, causes the rent of these areas to skyrocket, making them unaffordable to those who have lived there for years (Sasani). 

The gentrification of communities in Boston was clearly displayed in many of these public murals. My original inclination in fully comprehending and examining the murals of Boston was due to our very own display on Northeastern’s campus. When discussing relational landscapes, the concept of Northeastern’s campus serving as a barrier was an idea that resonated with my particular transect. While the murals installed on campus are implemented into a public, “open” campus, this similar question of how open is an “open” campus realistically, directly correlated with the relationship of murals to the community around them. To conclude, my overall findings regarding “publicness” urged the nation that the more inclusive a mural is, the more public it is. The level of publicness of implementation into a community is based on how open it is to all, physically and metaphorically. These pieces carried immense amounts of history and emphasis on cultural acceptance and acknowledgment which made them a more public, open installation.

Sasani, Ava. “How Northeastern University Is Displacing Roxbury Residents.” The Scope, 20 Apr. 2018, https://thescopeboston.org/1523/features/how-northeastern-university-is-displacing-roxbury-residents/.