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(Photo by Nietnagel / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
In an audit of national monuments, the Monument Lab found that most monuments commemorate — surprise! — white men.
Who from history gets cast in bronze — and who doesn’t — reflects a legacy of racism and sexism in America’s public spaces. Now, a project from the city of Boston is taking aim at the landscape of monuments across the city.
It’s called Un-Monument, short for “Un-monument | Re-monument | De-Monument: Transforming Boston.” There’s a playful, experimental spirit to the initiative, which consists of free temporary monuments, partnerships with arts and cultural organizations across the city and free public programming.
Led by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, the multi-year Un-Monument project is funded by a $3 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project — the biggest investment ever made in free public art in Boston. (Disclosure: Next City has also received grant funding from the Mellon Foundation.)
“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,” said Mayor Michelle Wu in a press release. “This investment in public art programs is groundbreaking and will support our efforts to highlight the many cultures, talents, and histories of our residents.”
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, activists tore down Confederate statues that memorialized men who fought to protect chattel slavery as an institution. The movement sparked a reckoning with the racist legacy of monuments across the country.
In total, the Mellon Foundation is dedicating $500 million to “transforming the nation’s commemorative landscape,” building monuments that better reflect the people that make up America’s diverse history. Other cities participating in the project include Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver and Portland, Oregon.
The temporary monuments that will be on view in Boston will commemorate more than just your Paul Reveres and Benjamin Franklins, while also challenging the normative definition of “monument.” They include a hyper-local theater production about Boston’s Chinatown, a large golden Mayan pyramid made (in part) of ice coolers and a series of public interventions and meditations about the legacy of Crispus Attucks, legendary martyr of the Boston Massacre.
In total, the city commissioned 16 artists to create eight temporary monuments and eight research and development projects. In addition, the city is partnering with five cultural organizations to commission more works from artists.
The temporary monuments will run from June to October. Applications for the second year of the grant program will open to artists in November.
This story was produced through our Equitable Cities Fellowship for Social Impact Design, which is made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
