Swimwear designer Francine Makuwa fled her home in the Congo as a refugee when she was 9 years old. As she traveled to the United States to seek asylum, an elderly woman taught her how to crochet. “While running from the war, she found peace in crochet,” says Makuwa. “I never forgot.” Now, 17 years…Read More
Art
Community Legacy
Every year the MIT List Visual Arts Center hosts a lottery for students at the university. Any student can enter to win a piece of art from the center’s collection, which they are allowed to hang in their dorm for the remainder of the school year. Artist Elisa Hamilton says, “I was impressed with the…Read More
Third Thursdays at the Gardner
This is the first time I’ve ever used this word, but the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was lit last night. That’s right, the former home of 19th century firecracker pulled out all the stops for their Third Thursday party. I’ve often, shamefully, relegated the Gardner to the bottom of my artistic to-do list. The main…Read More
Big Brother is Watching
“Real/Ideal: Turning Utopia into Reality” brings a chilling body of contemporary work to the Boston Center for the Arts’ Mills Gallery. Curated by David Guerra, director of A R E A Gallery, the show, which continues through September 17, articulates utopian dreams with underlying feelings of foreboding. Beverly Sky’s fabric collage on canvas, titled…Read More
Immigration Nation
Students, artists and community members created over 400 hand-painted suitcases for Nora Valdez’s “Immigration Nation” exhibit at Urbano Project, on display through July 29. The tactile sculptural installation confronts the struggle of immigrants to find identity and acceptance in the United States. Eucaris Jimenez, a 20-year-old student at UMass Boston, painted her suitcase with a…Read More
Brushstrokes Behind Bars
Last week artist and activist Ann Lewis began work on “See Her,” a public mural at 808 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End. The temporary mural, up until October 2018, is being created in partnership with the women of the McGrath House, a reentry facility where incarcerated women serve the final six months of their…Read More