Category Mosaic

Take in Bike Tour of Public Art in Cambridge: Central Square, Cambridgeport, and Riverside
This post notes outstanding outcomes of an exciting event one perfect evening in late July 2022: the beautifully organized free bike tour of Cambridge public art between Central Square and the Charles River. 1. Bike-riders of all ages gathered outside the Central Square Library for an overview of art around the library and along the planned route of the whole tour. Cambridge police and attentive volunteers guided everyone safely through the sunset finale. 2. The tour is now engagingly documented in a 2-minute video. 3. The route has become a self-guiding tour for cyclists, though certainly adaptable to walkers. Facts, links and videos on the tour site are informative and intriguing for interested readers far from Cambridge. 4. The whole experience even elevated my already towering enthusiasm for public art!

Applaud Playground Turtles and their Creators: Nancy Schön and Lilli Ann Killen Rosenberg
Endurance is a quality shared by the turtle sculptures in this post. Lilli Ann Roseberg’s colorful concrete turtles in Cambridge have been ridden, jumped on, snowed in, flooded over and lots more in the past three decades. Nancy Schön’s bronze Myrtle the Turtle was bound up and relocated within Boston’s Myrtle Street Playground soon after settling in last year. These sculptures endured isolation while playgrounds were closed in the spring and then cautiously reopened.

Marvel at Moses Mosaic
The brilliant new mosaic mural above the Moses Youth Center entrance radiates reminders of its history and promise. While not much could happen inside through the summer 2020, the Moses Mosaic had been collaboratively created by community youth and artists before the pandemic began. So, in early July after weeks of labor-intensive installation, the Moses Mosaic was ready for public view.

Look Up to Mosaic Masterpieces at Fletcher Maynard Academy, Cambridge
Closed all spring 2020 like every school, Fletcher Maynard Academy in Cambridge continues to offer art that is open to public view. People can look up above the school’s doors at the corner of Broadway and Windsor Streets to marvel at the Mosaic Masterpieces created a year earlier by students with artists David Fichter, Liane Noddin, and art teacher Lolly Lincoln.

David Phillips Links Earth and Sky at Maud Morgan Arts
The previous post showed Gail Boyajian’s “Bird Mosaic ” in the memorial garden with David Phillips’ marking stone. This one leaps to the top of Maud Morgan Arts where his paintbrush-and-palette weathervane shifts directions with the wind. Next it takes in the whole building’s exterior design to identify other artists’ contributions that should get focus in future posts.

Gail Boyajian’s Mosaic on the Ground Looks Up to Birds, Myths, Flight, and Sky
While museums and art centers must be closed, I’ve opened my eyes to art outside their doors. Today I’ll focus on “Bird Mosaic” by Gail Boyajian in the memorial garden to the right of the gate to Maud Morgan Arts in my neighborhood. Planned sequel posts should show and tell more about the art center and the garden (Mary’s Garden).

Uplifting Updates, Thanks to Boston Women’s Heritage Trail and Boston Art Commission
At the end of my self-assigned project of posting about women artists on Public Art Walk, I began to wonder how I could better share the fascinating discoveries that came from it. After listing the artists and my posts on a blog page last month, I wished for some ways to convey what I had learned beyond my own small base of friends, colleagues, and family. Now two organizations are doing what I wished for.

Lilli Ann Rosenberg Engaged People in Making and Enjoying Public Art
Lilli Ann Killen Rosenberg (1924–2011) initiated memorably collaborative community art projects wherever she went throughout her working life. From the Henry Street Settlement in New York City to numerous sites in the Boston area and then others in southern Oregon, she engaged children and adults in creating responsive public art. This post offers images from Boston sites I have visited and quotes or links that motivate me to visit many more.

Playground Enriched by Collaborative Art
Here are my recent photos and notes about the Boston Common Tadpole Playground, which I had often passed by on my walk to work for years. Finally a deliberate visit there during December holidays got me to focus on the art that has been integral to that playground for more than a decade. In 2002 […]