Contemporary and Temporary Greenway Art
LAURA JASINSKI
Janet Echelman ’ s billowing sculpture As If It Were Already Here may have been raised over the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway overnight , but the arrival of six cranes and over fifty workers to the site at midnight on May 3 , 2015 was the product of years of planning and preparation . The groundwork for changing the Boston skyline was laid in the winter of 2011-2012 , long before the nonprofit Greenway Conservancy — established by state statute to manage and improve the park — had earned the full confidence of its various stakeholders .
In many ways , building a public art program was the natural next step in a series of Conservancyled efforts to activate Boston ’ s newest civic space . By 2012 , the Conservancy had transitioned from producing a small collection of large annual events to creating a model for hosting hundreds of events planned by third-party partners with Conservancy marketing , permitting , and operational support . That effort , combined with the flourishing organic horticulture program and a Greenway Mobile Eats food truck program that pioneered the industry in Boston , resulted in explosive growth in the quantity , quality , and diversity of programming on The Greenway . The level of increased activity primed the landscape for its next layer of activation : contemporary public art .
The Conservancy then engaged consultants and the community to develop a fiveyear public art strategy for the corridor through a series of public meetings and stakeholder interviews . The object was to create the criteria around which public art projects would be selected to enliven The Greenway . At the core of this criteria was the concept that for the foreseeable future all
public art installations along the corridor would be contemporary and temporary . The first qualifier , focusing on contemporary art , was important for distinguishing The Greenway from Boston ’ s beloved historic parks like the Boston Common , Public Garden , and Emerald Necklace . The temporary nature of each project builds an inherent sense of urgency into each , driving visitors to The Greenway to see installations before their time runs out while also reducing the costs of long-term conservation and maintenance . Perhaps most importantly , impermanency provides flexibility for The Greenway to evolve alongside its neighbors as they redevelop and adjust to abutting a park rather than an elevated highway .
From this baseline , four frameworks were established to guide the curation of each project : 1 ) increasing connection among the diverse communities along the Greenway district by using art to promote placemaking ; 2 ) encouraging interactivity between park visitors by engaging them
ABOVE One of the piers from Landing Studio ’ s Marginal installation in the foreground and Grove by GLD in the background .
22 BSLA