Memorable Cultural Moments of 2025

On view February 27–May 26 | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
As someone from the Caribbean, I’ve always been fascinated by water as a sacred body and secret portal between worlds. Fabiola honored these layered meanings with incredible beauty and skill, transforming the gallery into a spiritually charged space where ancestral memory, embodiment, and visual pleasure unfolded together.

September 12 | City Hall Plaza
This three-part performance was part of the Boston Public Art Triennial and featured Brazilian drumming, pyrotechnics, and the fiery destruction of a colonial-era ship effigy. It was a powerful moment of collective healing and reconciliation with our colonial past, transforming power and pain into dance, ritual, and communal joy. I’m admittedly biased, but this was a Boston 2025 highlight.

On view May 2025–October 2026 | Rose Kennedy Greenway
Ja’Hari created a space for Black joy that moves beyond familiar conversations around resilience and strength in Black women. This piece centers rest and celebration. It felt like a breath of fresh air in public space, and witnessing such a young artist take bold steps at an early stage in her career was profoundly inspiring. So proud of her!

On view September 5–December 10 | Boston University Art Galleries
A powerful statement and bold institutional move, this exhibition confronted identity, belonging, and justice with clarity and force. In a moment when being loud and unapologetic matters, Marka27’s work stood strong for what is just, challenging viewers and the gallery alike to reckon with urgency and presence.

October 14 | Copley Society of Art
HerSector’s launch party was deeply personal for me. It marked the coming together of care, shared vision, and years of conversation about what women in the arts truly need. Seeing our community grow stronger through joy, dialogue, and collective intention felt powerful and affirming—a reminder that building space together is both necessary and transformative. We’re so excited for the road ahead.

Amor Díaz-Campos is a curator and cultural organizer based in Boston. She works across exhibitions, public art, and community-centered initiatives focused in care, equity, and diasporic narratives. Amor is the curatorial and development coordinator at the Boston Public Art Triennial and co-founder and director of partnerships and engagement for HerSector, supporting women in the arts through mentorship, professional development, and collaboration.

February 2025 | Charlestown
A group of us cozied up on comfy couches in warm, low light on a February evening as Mx. Blaire walked us through the ins and outs of CDJs. Part of a generous three-session community workshop series for the audio inquisitive, we explored building playlists, transitioning between vinyl records, what to bring to Europe when DJing, and the history of house music, with special guest T4T LUV NRG. Add in a slinky, black cat weaving through the room as music and laughter flowed, and these classes were the perfect antidote to the cold start of 2025.

January 2025 | Los Angeles, CA
In early January 2025, Los Angeles experienced some of the worst wildfires in its history, deeply impacting artists, their homes, studios, and work. In response, a coalition of major arts organizations, led by the J. Paul Getty Trust, partnered with national and international foundations to fundraise over $12 million in direct relief for artists. This kind of immediate, material, and collective action between institutions created a glimmer of hope amid the devastation and showcased an artist-specific model of disaster relief for other cities and museums to build upon.

On view May 24, 2025–April 5, 2026 | MASS MoCA
I saw this show late in the year and immediately wished my younger brother, who’s both an artist and an army officer, was there to see it with me. Through immense paintings, levitating lithographs, and quieter, layered moments of sculptural and video work, Valdez chronicles and grapples with the darkest chapters of US history. While media outlets actively erase the violence our communities currently face, “Just a Dream…” reminded me that poetry and painting are often ways of keeping the most accurate records. Don’t miss the flat file drawers featuring Valdez’s drawings all the way back to elementary school.

December 13, 2025 | Studio 9
While in North Adams to see Valdez’s show at MASS MoCA, a friend invited me to a concert at Studio 9, an intimate state-of-the-art recording studio and performance venue. Under the mini half-shell space crafted out of cedar wood, we listened to gorgeous vocals from artist Eleni as she blended South American folklore, jazz, and Greek traditional music. I learned that all of this was made possible via a collaboration with nearby Floating Tower and FreshGrass Institute to highlight refugee and immigrant artists whose work expands the language of contemporary music—highly recommend catching a performance there if you can!

Published 2021 | Read on the commuter rail between Providence and Boston
Published in 2021 after Trump’s first term, this book has been a steady source of sustenance during my commute this year. Evans draws upon historical and contemporary debates about the merits of public art to propose we consider public artworks based on their success as acts of citizenship—not in the sense of any legal status, but in their capacity to resist autocratic tendencies while also revealing and strengthening the necessary dimensions and challenges of thriving democracies.

Dr. Audrey N. Lopez is a curator, researcher, and writer working at the intersection of public art and civic engagement based in Providence, RI. She is Director & Curator of Public Art at The Greenway in Boston, MA. Her work has been featured in Artforum, ARTnews, ArchDaily, designboom, The Los Angeles Times, KCRW, The Boston Globe, WBUR, and Boston Art Review.

Ongoing | Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston
With this year’s appointment of Nora Burnett Abrams as the Ellen Matilda Poss director, the ICA launched the Artist Pass program, making the ICA even more welcoming to working artists. Artists of all disciplines can submit an application through the ICA website; as of mid-December, over 930 artists had applied for the program. The ICA made a clear 2025 statement: Museums are civic spaces that should actively support artist communities. Expanding free access for working artists acknowledges this moment—when artists need places to gather, think, and connect—and positions the ICA as an institution investing in the city’s creative public life.

In 2025, some of Boston’s most meaningful art emerged through collaboration. For the Boston Public Art Triennial, Patrick Martinez partnered with Breaktime—an organization working to end youth homelessness—on his neon sign series, Cost of Living, foregrounding the lived experiences of unhoused young people. L’Merchie Frazier, a 2025 Wagner Arts Fellow, collaborated with Neighborhood Birth Center, as it establishes a community-centered birthing facility in Roxbury, to create a “talking cloth,” a quilt shaped by contributions from more than one-hundred community members. Featured at a recent MASS Design Group event, the work demonstrates how art resonates most when made with, not just for, communities.

June 12–15 | TOURISTS
Arrival Art Fair emerged in 2025 as one of New England’s most compelling new cultural gatherings. Founded by Praise Shadows Gallery’s visionary force Yng-Ru Chen, artist Crystalle Lacouture, and art advisor Sarah Galender Meyer, the fair proved that artist-centered invitational models can shift the conversation beyond the market. By spotlighting local and emerging voices in the intimate setting of TOURISTS hotel in North Adams, Arrival became a space where community engagement, experimentation, and exchange happened on equal footing—a much-needed alternative platform for Boston’s creative future.

June 2025 | Public Trust, Philadelphia
As art and cultural institutions face growing threats in today’s funding landscape, the Curating Engagement retreat demonstrated how art can be dialogic rather than didactic. This gathering was presented by Public Trust and supported by the Wagner Foundation, with Daniel Tucker, Abigail Satinsky, and Aaron Levy. The retreat brought together more than fifty curators, educators, and artists—including practitioners from the ICA / Boston, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, among many others. Centered on shared authority, public participation, and exchange, the gathering advanced a vision of institutions as civic spaces rooted in mutual support, accountability, and collective care. Look out for the project’s companion book of the same name, Curating Engagement, which will be released at EXPO Chicago in 2026.

December 1 | New Institutions Substack
James McAnally, executive and artistic director of Counterpublic in St. Louis, writes about the exhibition as a discipline of hope in response to the 2025 fire that destroyed a major designated site for his organization’s 2026 triennial. In that context, alongside the recent tornado and the loss of funding for community partners, he frames exhibition-making as sustained civic work—rooted in continuity, collaboration, and accountability to community—and argues for the importance of maintaining relationships over time, even amid loss, disruption, and uncertainty. He writes, “Art can offer both an ethic and a method of hope that is essential to any generational work. Art is not an all-encompassing strategy, but one specific approach to allow us to see the world slightly differently and to take action outside the bounds of what feels possible.”

Charlotte Wagner is founder and president of Wagner Foundation, an organization she established in 2005 guided by her lifelong belief in our shared humanity and the equal value of all people. An acknowledged leader in the arts, Charlotte was appointed and served on President Joseph Biden’s Advisory Committee on the Arts. She’s currently the president of the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston, and on the board of VIA Art. Charlotte also contributes as a member of the Tate North American Acquisitions Committee.

June 25 | The Barn at Old Schwamb Mill
Artist Eva Zasloff’s studio also doubles as a performance space/gathering spot every once in a while. Eva puts on great events and Mary’s performance there this summer was amazing and intimate, with maybe twenty or thirty people watching—pretty special!

July 11 | Royale Boston
Midwest indie rock legends (I won’t mention the “e” word) put out their one studio album in 1995, and I’ve been listening to it for thirty years. In July I finally got to see them, making my high-school self very happy.

On view through December 2025 | Blue Hill Observatory & Science Center
Painter Dana Clancy essentially created a year-long residency for herself on the third floor of the observation tower containing the nation’s oldest continuous climate record. I visited one of her final open studio days on the winter solstice and loved the DIY nature of it and the merging of art, science, and maybe some magic.

September 18 | Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston
Devendra put on a wonderful solo acoustic performance, playing his songs and telling his stories. It was funny and beautiful. Kath Bloom (who I did not know) opened for him and was great, too—look her up!

Once a Month | Secret Location
Artists Nadya Volicer, Peat Duggins, and Maya Erdelyi-Perez host a monthly drawing night at a secret location. People gather, draw, drink, gossip and bitch. It feels good being part of a community and I’d certainly call this one; it’s fun and helpful. Ask around and you might find an invitation, or just start your own drawing night!

Damien Hoar de Galvan is a visual artist based in Milton, MA. He was a recipient of the 2025 James and Audrey Foster Prize, awarded by the ICA / Boston. He likes working with wood and paint and glue and also playing soccer.

August 22 | The Anchor
I’m a firm believer that we all need to party more and that dancing rejuvenates our life force. Next Level’s queer social dance nights give me the chance to play and feel connected to others. Oh, to be a human body holding another human body’s hands, stepping and swaying your hips and giggling into the night!  

On view April 17–September 1 | Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston
When it comes to color, Whitney says “I like to leave it as pure magic. People say the color does this, or the color does that. And I say the color does what it does.” Seeing his retrospective at the ICA affirmed for me how powerful it is when artists of color create work untethered by the expectations of institutions.

Once a month(ish), my queer Tamil friends gather to cackle, roast each other, and practice our mother tongue. Having lost the ability to speak confidently, they have helped me to reclaim my culture on my own terms. On days when I’m worn out by white supremacy, I’m grateful for a place that lets me feel at home.

February 2025 | Mexico City
Visiting Mexico City this year demonstrated the power of color and architecture to shape the ways we experience wonder in everyday life. Every morning as we walked down Avenida Ámsterdam, a tree-lined street, I would breathe in, fantasizing about what the Commonwealth would look like if we could just stroll down the middle of the street surrounded by native plants.

April 10 | Hibernian Hall
Night Side Songs, a communal music-theater experience, made my heart swell ten times its size and audience members left smiling at each other with tears in their eyes. The show reflected on the impact of illness on the ways doctors, patients, and caregivers move through life and understand their bodies and relationships within the context of death and sickness.

Deborah Johnson (she/they) is a queer Indian American multidisciplinary artist based in Boston. Her work is centered around deepening our relationships to our bodies, each other, and our physical environment. Their work has been shown at Harvard Ed Portal’s Crossing Gallery, MIT Center for Constructive Communication, and Boston Figurative Art Center.

On view November 15, 2025–January 15, 2026 | Street Theory Gallery & Collective
The opening of “The Living Room Gallery” exhibition, paired with the soft launch of Street Theory’s new space, was a magical evening. Our first show brought together thirty-plus artists—longtime collaborators from near and far. The November opening felt packed, electric, and familial. Not a white-cube debut, but a living room where we belong, full of color, energy, and possibility.

On view September 5–December 10, 2025 | Boston University Art Galleries
Marka27’s solo exhibition “Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá” was significant not only personally, because he’s my partner, but culturally and socially. The work arrived amid renewed ICE raids from LA to DC to Boston. While it may have felt timely to most, the realities depicted are timeless, responding not to a moment but to a lived experience shared by millions.

On view September–November 2025 | Rose Kennedy Greenway
Elevar La Cultura transformed a moment into a traveling monument. Marka27’s twenty-two-foot, neo-Mayan pyramid of ice coolers pays tribute to street vendors and immigrants. Despite early local controversy, the work emerged victorious, shown first at The Shed in NYC, followed by the Greenway and SCOPE in Miami. Now supported by the Hearthland Foundation, it continues to Dallas and beyond, crossing sanctuary and non-sanctuary cities alike.

October 19 + 26, November 2 + 9 | Faneuil Hall
On four Sundays this fall, SUMO, by Booger Money, brought together music, art, fashion, food, and collective energy. Seeing Drea’s (Andréa Hudson) vision unfold in a place long defined by other voices felt powerful. The cultural shifts are happening in Boston! Art, sound, style, and community are claiming space, unapologetically.

As I enter the final quarter of my three-year contract as mural consultant with the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture (MOAC), I’ve reflected deeply on public art politics, spatial justice, and government process. Through it all, my artist-first priorities stayed clear. I’m grateful to the artists whose visions came to life and to the MOAC staff who consistently advocated for them.

Liza Quiñonez is a curator, cultural producer, and founder of Street Theory Gallery & Collective. Rooted in street culture and community, her work spans contemporary exhibitions, large-scale public art, and artist development. Through artist-first practice and cultural place-keeping, she builds platforms, spaces, and pathways for artists to create, connect, and thrive—locally and beyond.

October 4 | Arnold Arboretum at Harvard
In collaboration with visual artist Daniel Callahan and the Arnold Arboretum, we had the great pleasure of bringing Boston’s third MassQ Ball event to life. A large-scale celebration of ritual, performance, and cross-cultural arts, the MassQ Ball brought together over 150 artists of color and 3,000 attendees for an afternoon of art-making, cultural pride, connection, and joy.

December 11 | Hibernian Hall
As soon as I entered Hibernian Hall, I was transported through color, sound, sights, and food to Cuba. From art installations hanging from the ceiling to powerful folkloric drum and dance to original spoken word and “get-up-and-dance” rhythms, the night was energized, to say the least. It was the perfect respite from the cold days of winter.

May–October | Multiple Greater-Boston Locations
The Boston Public Art Triennial showed up for Boston, bringing large-scale public artworks to more than twenty sites across Boston. Castle of our Skins was able to get up close and intimate, dancing and performing in and all around Alison Croney Moses’s commissioned work, titled This Moment for Joy. The whole six-month festival was a true moment of connection.

October 3 | Boston Center for the Arts
Despite marketing efforts being shadow banned and censored on social media platforms (the algorithms in 2025 don’t appreciate #HellaBlack…), this event came through to uplift Black creatives and the power of their voices. Curated by Amanda Shea and running for seven editions, I loved how #HellaBlack brought joy, culture, arts, and more to BCA’s Cyclorama.

September 19–October 12 | The Modern Theatre
Over the course of ninety minutes, I laughed, cried, listened deeply, and left inspired to act when I saw this truly thought-provoking production. The actors were phenomenal, the director (Maurice Emmanuel Parent) on point, and the culminating spectacle of time travel surreal. It was a provocative imagining of Dr. King’s final night facing his destiny and his legacy to his people.

Ashleigh Gordon is artistic director of Castle of our Skins, a concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. She has been featured in the New York Times, nominated for Americans for the Arts’ Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities, and named one of WBUR’s “ARTery 25” for her work impacting Boston’s arts and culture scene. ​

January 24 | Boston City Hall
Brutalism is like cilantro: You love it or hate it. Boston City Hall is not buried within the book of brutalism; it is the front cover! It was nearly demolished, like Scollay Square before it, but is now a protected landmark. This is a major recognition of City Hall as an exemplary piece of monumental architecture.

September 14 | King’s Chapel
Cities are ever-evolving. They are living. Seeing something new along the Freedom Trail is—like this work—remarkable. Commissioned by MASS Design to honor the 219 people who were known to be enslaved by past ministers and congregants of this church, Rosales’s memorial features a Black woman seated with birds perched around an open cage. This is a poignant reminder that freedom was only for some, not for all, and our fight for freedom is constant.

Multiple dates | Old North Church and other historic sites
America’s fight for freedom didn’t end the moment we got independence. It continues. This reminder was emblazoned guerilla-style across some of the city’s most iconic historical landmarks, some featuring pithy phrases from the collective Silence Dogood, named after the pseudonym used by a young Benjamin Franklin. The projections erased time in a way only achievable through architecture and art. With “Once if by land, twice if by D.C.” projected across the steeple of Old North, 250 years of context are condensed into a single sentence, yet we all understand the message.

On view October 23, 2025–January 24, 2026 | Boston Athenaeum
I’ve long admired Crite’s work. He is Boston’s great storyteller. Much of his work reveals the joie de vivre of Boston’s Black neighborhoods. Yet, as an urbanist, it also shows me the joy that was erased in the name of “urban renewal”—something Crite witnessed with his own eyes. These are the stories that only art can keep alive.

In a world of value-engineered architecture, what a celebration of travel! This puts the awe back into the human experience of place, something exceptionally rare in public spaces built in the States. Boston doesn’t deserve ordinary; it deserves extraordinary. The concourse’s arches, designed by Pelli Clarke, create a cathedral of concrete.

Matthew Dickey is a streetscape curator, urbanist, and artist. He uses architecture to connect people to place, spark curiosity, and engage audiences with the history embedded in the built environment. Follow his architectural observances on Instagram @StreetscapeCurator.