![USA-Boston-Christopher Columbus Park1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/USA-Boston-Christopher_Columbus_Park1.JPG)
The contemporary Boston Arts Festival is an annual event showcasing Boston's visual and performing arts community and promoting Boston's Open Studios program. The weekend-long Festival at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park features a wide variety of arts and high-end crafts, including painting, photography, ceramics, jewelry, sculpture and live music. The Arts Festival, which has existed in several different forms, was relaunched by former Mayor
Thomas Menino
Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...
in 2003, then reconceived by Mayor
Marty Walsh
Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...
in 2015.
The Beacon Hill Art Walk and Artists Crossing Gallery will be organizing the 2019 September Festival.
The original Festival, briefly named the "Boston Art Festival," was held at
Boston's Public Garden between 1952 and 1964.
That version is credited with democratizing access to the fine arts in Boston, especially for young, emerging and often Jewish-American, artists who felt shut out of Boston's famously
Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
museums and other institutional exhibition sites. Activist artists, either linked by the
Boston Museum School
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusett ...
or the
Boris Mirski Gallery
The Boris Mirski Gallery (1944-1979) was a Boston art gallery owned by Boris Chaim Mirski (1898-1974). The gallery was known for exhibiting key figures in Boston Expressionism, New York School (art), New York and International style (art), intern ...
founded the Boston Arts Festival. The first Festival debuted on June 12, 1952,
and displayed fine art in tents in the Public Garden, and provided free performances in nearby
Boston Common
The Boston Common (also known as the Common) is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beacon ...
. This represented a major break in how art was presented in New England. No longer confined to the monied and the elite, the early Festivals provided avant garde artists with a forum in which to show their work, compete and interact with one another. That exchange of ideas and influences developed into the earliest form of
American Figurative Expressionism
American Figurative Expressionism is a 20th-century visual art style or movement that first took hold in Boston, and later spread throughout the United States. Critics dating back to the origins of Expressionism have often found it hard to define ...
, known as
Boston Expressionism Boston Expressionism is an arts movement marked by emotional directness, dark humor, social and spiritual themes, and a tendency toward figuration strong enough that Boston Figurative Expressionism is sometimes used as an alternate term to distingu ...
.
History
The Boston Arts Festival had roots in 1940s' meetings organized to protest Boston's
Institute of Contemporary Art, then known as the Institute of Modern Art. Artists like
Hyman Bloom
Hyman Bloom (March 29, 1913 – August 26, 2009) was a Latvian-born American painter. His work was influenced by his Jewish heritage and Eastern religions as well as by artists including Altdorfer, Grünewald, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Blake, Bre ...
,
Karl Zerbe
Karl Zerbe (September 16, 1903 – November 24, 1972) was a German-born American painter and educator.
Biography
Karl Zerbe was born on September 16, 1903 in Berlin, Germany. The family lived in Paris, France from 1904–1914, where his fat ...
,
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''.
Biography
Shahn was bor ...
,
Jack Levine
Jack Levine (January 3, 1915November 8, 2010) was an American Social Realist painter and printmaker best known for his satires on modern life, political corruption, and biblical narratives. Levine is considered one of the key artists of the Bos ...
,
Joyce Reopel
Joyce Reopel (1933–2019) was an American painter, draughtswoman and sculptor who worked in pencil, aquatint, silver- and goldpoint, and an array of old master media. A Boris Mirski Gallery veteran, from 1959–1966, she was known for her refin ...
,
Mel Zabarsky
Melvin Joel Zabarsky (1932–2019) was an American figurative painter who created representational work in the narrative tradition. Known for a bright, bold palette, his work often explores political, historical and cultural themes to surreal a ...
and began gathering to discuss fears "that the Institute would ... become a showcase for ... something quite different that what we thought it ought to show and support,"
Arthur Polonsky said later. Zerbe's experience with Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, which only "owned one watercolor, and at a time when his work was being acquired quite seriously, with pleasure, by some of the other institutions,"
stoked those fears. The meetings jumpstarted the formation of the New England Chapter for Artist's Equity, an artist's union that advocated for more equitable commissions and representation.
"
t was
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...
really an Equity activity." Arthur Polonsky said of the Boston Arts Festival in an oral history with the
Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...
. "It was taken up by a group of businessmen later, with the collaboration of artists and gallery people, and it became the first experimental Boston Arts Festival a year later, but preceding that, that year, I remember actually working on a station wagon at night, hauling paintings in from what was then the Copley Plaza out to the exhibit place. Equity had a booth of its own in the first Arts Festival — six years of that — simply giving out information on the organization."
In their work, the artists were, critic Adam Zucker writes, "inspired largely by political and/or social issues and conflicts." Thus, the impetus behind the Festivals was not only political, but also identity-oriented. "Like
German Expressionism
German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...
, the American arts movement addresses issues at the heart of the expressionist sensibility, such as personal and group identity in the modern world, the role of the artist as a witness to issues such as violence and corruption, and the nature of the creative process and its implications." In 1952, Boston's art world did not welcome outsiders, and few galleries exhibited their work. "Looking back to the 1950s there were few opportunities to see works by contemporary Boston artists in a museum setting." Charles Guiliano writes. "Despite a young new director, Perry T. Rathbone (July 3, 1911 – Jan. 15th, 2000), who was intent on making the
Museum of Fine Arts more progressive that did not extend to embracing the dominantly Jewish Boston Expressionists. In the traditional Brahmin arts community there were elements of racism and anti Semitism...."
"There was a dichotomy between the conservative, traditional painters of the venerable, Copley Society, and the more progressive artists,"
Further, Guiliano notes, "
e more traditional and socially acceptable artists showed with the Copley Society or the Guild of Boston Artists. The work of Jews, immigrants or their sons, like the Lebanese/American Gibran, showed with gallerist
Boris Mirski or his former assistants Hyman Swetzoff and Alan Fink of Alpha Gallery."
The inclusion of juried shows also provided a forum for artistic distinction that generated interest. "
ere was palpable excitement visiting the annual Boston Arts Festival. In addition to exhibiting fine arts there was a stage for live performances," Guiliano continues," I recall jazz by the renowned Boston baritone sax player,
Serge Chaloff
Serge Chaloff (November 24, 1923 – July 16, 1957) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist. The first and greatest bebop baritonist, Chaloff has been described as 'the most expressive and openly emotive baritone saxophonist jazz has ever ...
, a play by
William Saroyan
William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...
, and a solo ballet performance by
Maria Tallchief
Elizabeth Marie Tallchief ( Osage family name: , Osage script: ; January 24, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American ballerina. She was considered America's first major prima ballerina. She was the first Native American (Osage Nation) to ...
. The ambitious festival (1955-1962) organized by Nelson Aldrich ended through a lack of funding. An attempt to revive it decades later was embarrassed when the theft of a painting by Barney Rubenstein occurred because of a lack of security. There were prizes awarded by jurors of the BAF resulting in debates and controversy. This focused on a perceived dichotomy between traditional still life and landscape works and more progressive forms of abstraction. Visitors voted for a Popular Prize. In 1956 that was awarded to Kahlil Gibran for his memorable “St. John the Baptist.” It stunned and amazed me. With then limited experience it was the greatest work of art I had seen.
"...
seemed like a good, exuberant, democratic, freeing kind of idea to many of us," artist Arthur Polonsky said. "It was very hearty, the sensations among the artists of Boston in those festivals of the first years, certainly, and the public. And much was accomplished. People like
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...
and
MacLeish had taken it all very seriously. Productions in opera, along with that fragile tent city of exhibitions went up each year."
Of prime importance to the artists was the fact that all of the events and exhibitions at the Boston Arts Festival were free of charge. This is a point the ''Guide to the Boston Arts Festival Records'' states repeatedly, while also noting the Festival eventually became cost prohibitive: "The first festival included a free program of painting, sculpture and music presented outdoors at the Boston Public Garden. Over the years, the Festival would expand upon this program by adding film, dance, and theater. The duration of the Festival was gradually increased as well. At various times, the selection process of the art shows and the perceived focus on modern arts attracted controversy, and the Festival often faced budget shortfalls due in part to the decision to allow free admittance to all performances while trying to provide quality programming on a large scale. Nonetheless, the Festival continued to operate with the goal of presenting a mass audience with a 'broad cross-section of the arts of our time
nd artsof as high an artistic standard as economically possible' until 1964.
The Revived Festival
![Christopher Columbus Park, Boston, P1000076](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Christopher_Columbus_Park%2C_Boston%2C_P1000076.JPG)
Mayor
Thomas M. Menino revived the Boston Arts Festival in 2003 as a one-day event, intended to launch Boston Open Studios and the 2003 performing arts season. The festival drew huge crowds to the newly re-designed Christopher Columbus Park on Boston’s Waterfront. Highlights of the event included lively performances by
Boston Lyric Opera
Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) is an American opera company based in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1976. BLO is the largest and longest-lived opera company in New England. BLO employs nearly 350 artists and creative professionals annually—vocalists ...
, performing Italian arias, La Piñata presenting folkloric dance, the Mayor’s Mural Crew offering interactive mural painting and watercolor exercises, and reports from some visual artists of record-breaking sales.
The Festival was expanded to two days in 2004, with highlight performances from
Boston Ballet and Jazz Hip Hop Orchestra, and huge crowd attendance. In 2005, the Festival coincided with
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
’s 375th Birthday. To celebrate, some Festival performances were relocated downtown and to
Faneuil Hall
Faneuil Hall ( or ; previously ) is a marketplace and meeting hall located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others ...
.
Boston Ballet performed again alongside Chu Ling Dance and Haitian singer Gi Frants.
The Festival drew record crowds in 2007, when juried artists exhibited and sold their artwork in a specially built artists’ village.
Opera Boston
Opera Boston was an opera company in Boston, Massachusetts. It specialized in less-frequently heard repertoire as well as modern works or opera premieres, along with opera education and outreach programs designed to bring opera education to childr ...
made their festival debut to great acclaim as did up-and-coming harpist
Maeve Gilchrist on the new Garden Stage to complement the Waterfront Stage.
Boston Pops
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart.
Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...
Ensemble and the very popular
Boston Gay Men's Chorus
The Boston Gay Men's Chorus is a group of vocalists located in Boston, Massachusetts. The group currently has over 300 members and has been directed by Conductor Reuben Reynolds for over 20 years. The group is heard by over 10,000 audience members ...
also made their debuts.
The 2008 Festival, building on the success of the 2007 Festival, expanded to become a three-day event. Visual artists were now able to exhibit and sell their work on Friday while special guests
Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in 1987. It was purchased in July 2017 by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil. Blue Man Group is known for its stage productions, which incorporate many kinds of music and art, bot ...
and
Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom is an American alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis. The band's name is derived from the band Buffalo Sp ...
entertained audiences from the Waterfront Stage. Despite the wettest day in the festival's short history, large crowds turned out as the festival opened to great energy. The rest of the weekend brought better weather and a full entertainment program on two stages. An attendance record was set for the Festival on Saturday with an unprecedented turnout and individual artists reported record sales.
Boston Children's Museum provided activities for children alongside the Mayor's Mural Crew. The Garden Stage played host to Pan United and harpist
Áine Minogue
Áine Minogue (born 27 May 1977, Borrisokane, County Tipperary) is an Irish harpist, singer, arranger and composer, now living in the Boston area. She has recorded thirteen solo albums in styles generally categorized as Celtic, world, folk, spiri ...
, amongst others, while on the Waterfront stage, the upcoming group
Everyday Visuals shared billing with dance troupe OrigiNation, songwriter
Bleu
Bleu or BLEU may refer to:
* the French word for blue
* '' Three Colors: Blue'', a 1993 movie
* BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy), a machine translation evaluation metric
* Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union
* Blue cheese, a type of cheese ...
, and for the seventh year in a row,
Boston Ballet.
Festival Reorganization
In 2015, Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced that the annual Boston Arts (Ahts) Festival would be re-imagined as Emerge, a one-day celebration of local arts and culture.
That version of the Festival evolved over the next four years. Plans for the 2019 Festival note that it will be organized by "Beacon Hill Art Walk and Artists Crossing Gallery, and will launch Boston’s Arts Open Studios season featuring more than 70 juried local visual artists and craftspeople, plus local musicians performing on the Waterfront Stage throughout the day."
[{{Cite web, url=https://thebostonartsfestival.com/about-us/the-festival/, title=The Festival: About, website=The Boston Arts Festival, access-date=Feb 3, 2019]
References
Festivals in Boston
Arts festivals in the United States
Boston expressionism