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BOSTON - Friday,
November 5, 2021 - Mayor Kim Janey and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture,
in collaboration with the Boston Art Commission, the Boston Public Library,
and Boston Centers for Youth & Families (BCYF) yesterday celebrated a
new piece of public art that has been installed at the Jamaica Plain Branch
of the Boston Public Library and BCYF Curtis Hall. The City of Boston
commissioned Matthew Hinçman to create Wythe & Web, and it was
funded by the City’s Percent for Art program.
“This new addition
to the Jamaica Plain Branch and BCYF Curtis Hall is a great way to honor
the strong community ties that are present in this neighborhood,” said
Mayor Janey. “I can’t wait to see people interact with the artwork, and use
it as a way to engage in more conversations with each other.”
The public art
project complemented the renovation of the Jamaica Plain Branch, which
included a 700-square foot addition facing South Street that serves as a
community reading lounge, a terrace along Sedgwick Street where residents
can read and mingle, a refreshed collection of 30,000 books, an elevator
for full ADA accessibility, parking for over 20 bikes, and new exterior
landscaping.
The total budget for
the public art project was $205,000. The artwork is located on the lawn in
front of the library and BCYF Curtis Hall facing South Street. It is a
sculptural intervention that consists of a series of low brick walls that
zig-zag across the lawn. Some of the walls are capped with brightly colored
glazed bricks, and others are capped with slabs of granite. In addition to
the walls, there are five bronze chairs that take their form from the vinyl
webbed folding chairs found in millions of backyards and lawns.
The City of Boston
highlighted several themes identified by the community for Hinçman to
consider throughout his process, including the diversity and
intergenerational character of the neighborhood, a community of artists and
creators, a desire for artwork that is functional or interactive in some
way, and the need to retain a sense of neighborhood identity.
Matthew Hinçman is a
sculptor and educator living in Jamaica Plain, and is a professor of
sculpture at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt). He is also
chair of the Fine Arts 3D Program at MassArt. He currently serves on the
board of the Boston-based nonprofit Now+There. He's best known for
"Jamaica Pond Bench, 2006," and "STILL, 2014," both
located in Jamaica Plain.
“I hope that it
might be a bit of a destination,” said Matthew Hinçman. “I could never
imagine the bench that I made at Jamaica Pond being all that comfortable,
and yet, people will sit in it with their legs dangling over it and
actually say ‘let’s meet at the bench’. I don’t think the lawn here, prior
to the installation, held that kind of charm for folks, and I’m hopeful it
might now. I hope this might be something to go check out, and a space to
be in a way that it really wasn’t before.”
“Investing in local
artists and bringing new public art to Boston are two goals that we are
prioritizing as we work to make Boston a more culturally vibrant city,”
said Kara Elliott-Ortega, Chief of Arts and Culture. “We were thrilled to
support an artist with such a strong connection to the Jamaica Plain
neighborhood, and appreciate all of his hard work in making this project
happen.”
The FY22-26 Capital
Plan allocates $15 million to the Percent for Art program. Another long-term artwork by artist Joe Wardwell in collaboration with poet Nakia Hill and
youth from 826 Boston’s Youth Literary Advisory Board will be completely
installed at the Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library later this
month. In addition to long-term public art projects, the City also
allocated over $1 million to murals and other short-term public art
projects and activations this year through the Transformative Public Art Program. You can learn more about public art
projects underway at boston.gov/public-art.
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