Call Open For Round Two Of Un-monument | Re-monument | De-monument: Transforming Boston

Artists and artist-led teams are encouraged to propose temporary public monuments for Boston, with applications open November 13, 2024, through January 13, 2025.

Today, Mayor Michelle Wu and the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture (MOAC) announced an open call for artists and artist-led teams to submit proposals for round two of Un-monument | Re-monument | De-monument: Transforming Boston. This initiative, intended to generate conversation and reflection about who and what we memorialize, offers artists grants of up to $100,000 to propose and realize temporary public monuments and related programming. Applications are open from November 13, 2024, through January 13, 2025, with the next cohort of recipients to be announced in early 2025.

This new initiative is supported by a $3 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project, a national initiative that aims to transform the country’s commemorative landscape to ensure collective histories are more completely and accurately represented. This program represents the largest investment into public art programming in Boston, one of nine in the U.S. cities to receive a grant, along with Asheville, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; Providence, Rhode Island; and San Francisco, California. 

“Boston has been at the forefront of the national conversation about how to tell our stories through monuments,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “We’re thrilled to build upon the first round of Un-monument and offer another opportunity for artists and local arts organizations to continue to experiment with new ideas, revisit old traditions, and imagine ways to expand and diversify our cultural approach to memory, monuments, and storytelling.”

The open call for round two of Un-monument offers two distinct opportunities for artists. The first opportunity is an invitation for temporary monument proposals, in which artists from across the country are encouraged to propose a temporary monument to be installed in any neighborhood throughout the City of Boston. Ideas centering on lesser-known histories are encouraged, as well as projects that engage in mediums that differ from traditional sculptural practices or respond and interact with existing monuments. 

The second opportunity is a New Media workshop focused on Projection Mapping, hosted by Emerson Contemporary, which follows the Augmented Reality (AR) workshop that was available to artists in round one. New Media offers a unique opportunity to engage with existing monuments in innovative ways without requiring permanent alterations. However, the specialized equipment and high technical costs often make it a challenging medium for artists to pursue. In an effort to help artists develop future proposals, this funded workshop will equip them with the skills and technology needed to translate previous works or create new ones using Projection Mapping techniques.

Beyond the current open call opportunities, the program adopts a multifaceted approach to the discourse on monuments which includes cultural partnerships, educational engagement, and public conversations. To ensure that multiple curatorial voices and perspectives are included in this process, MOAC will continue to collaborate with curatorial partners across the City who have been deeply engaged in this work for years, including Emerson Contemporary, The National Center for Afro-American Artists, The North American Indian Center of Boston, The Boston Public Art Triennial, and Pao Arts Center. The Massachusetts College of Art and Design is also collaborating with MOAC to develop educational materials, including interpretation at artwork sites and online, while PRX is partnering to capture audio content at public talks and events.

In this grant cycle, MOAC will further broaden Un-monument’s impact through a partnership with The Boston Art Review (BAR), providing resources and opportunities for writers to research, write, and publish works about the projects and ideas that are being developed through the Un-monument initiative. MOAC and BAR consider writers as an essential part of our creative field who can investigate, celebrate, and document discourse about monuments through alternative mediums.

The first round of Un-monument in 2024 awarded grants for more than 30 projects which will continue to be realized through 2025 as Boston and the nation prepare for the 250th anniversary of the nation. In the summer and fall of 2024, MOAC hosted a series of public conversations curated by The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Taking place at The Embrace, the series explored conversations around democracy and justice and featured preeminent speakers such as MacArthur ‘Genius’ Imani Perry, Professor Joshua Bennett, and Professor Kerri Greenidge, among others. The public conversation series will continue through the summer of 2025.

For more information, visit boston.gov/unmonument.

ABOUT THE MAYOR’S OFFICE OF ARTS AND CULTURE

The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture is a City agency that enhances the quality of life, the economy, and the design of the City through the arts. The role of the arts in all aspects of life in Boston is reinforced through equitable access to arts and culture in every community, its public institutions, and public places. Key areas of work include support to the cultural sector through grants and programs, support of cultural facilities and artist workspace, as well as the commissioning and care of art in public places. 

ABOUT THE MELLON FOUNDATION’S MONUMENT PROJECT

The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture received a $3,000,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Monument Project to support community and curatorial partnerships, new temporary commemorative installations, and related public art programs in 2024 and 2025. As part of the award, five community curatorial collaborators are commissioning monument-related temporary public art installations alongside the City’s Transformative Public Art program commissioned through this call to artists.

The Monuments Project is an unprecedented multi-year commitment by the Mellon Foundation that is aimed at transforming the nation’s commemorative landscape to ensure our collective histories are more completely and accurately represented. Launched in 2020 as a $250 million initiative—and doubled in 2023 to $500 million—the Monuments Project supports efforts to express, elevate, and preserve the stories of those who have often been denied historical recognition, and explores how we might foster a more complete telling of who we are as a nation. The Foundation’s commitment to the Monuments Project reflects both the urgency and the gravity of fostering more complete and inclusive storytelling of who we are as Americans.

The Monuments Project is a multi-year initiative, not a one-time open call. Although the Foundation occasionally releases targeted requests for ideas to further the reach of the initiative, most proposals are accepted by invitation only. If you are interested in being considered for funding from Mellon, please submit an inquiry.