If you’re like us, going to the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum is on your summer bucket list! Well, great news! You can explore the museum’s galleries after hours for free at the museum’s neighborhood night! This summer’s series invites visitors to explore themes drawn from the Museum’s new special exhibition Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform, considering historical landscape architecture, and envisioning their own alternative “counter-maps” today. Each Neighborhood Night will feature performances, hands-on art-making, food trucks, a cash bar, and gallery games.
Thursday, August 1, 5 to 9pm: “Counter Maps”
This evening is co-produced with community partner Brown Art Ink, a community incubator to support the arts ecosystem for women artists of color, cultural practitioners, and communities of color. Explore how artists are geographers and demographers in their own right.
Galleries: Site specific responses by artist, writer and curator Dell M. Hamilton
Calderwood Hall: What I Mean By Mercy: Remembering & Remapping–a poetic meditation by JME. Remember & remap your personal narrative with poetry & film
Berttucci Education Studio: Join Yennifer Pedraza and Why Don’t We, a design lab focused on using artistic, architectural, and urban design to combat loneliness and build community
Living Room & Jordan Garden: Help create an archive of Boston-dwellers in the current moment by taking a self-portrait with photographer Khabeer Sultan, enjoy Cash bar and lawn games
Courtyard: Beats by DJ Real P
Thursday, August 22, 5 to 9pm: “Map This Block Party”
Co-produced with Neighborhood Salon Luminary Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez‘s Street Theory Gallery, this night celebrates the culmination of the Map This community engagement project both inside the Museum and on the street. The Block Party will premiere the Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform exhibition-inspired textile intervention Map This with Neighborhood Salon Luminary and designer Nathalia JMag featuring youth-serving community partner organizations: Urbano Project, Sisters Unchained, and Hyde Square Task Force. Dance through the street in a processional led by Brazilian batucada band Grooversity, enjoy map-inspired live painting, performances by the BLA Step & Stroll Team, Luminary DJ Real P, food trucks, art making, cash bar and fun for the whole family.
The fine print
Free admission will be available at the Museum entrance on a first-come, first-served basis. Visitors under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Admission includes access to the entire Museum, including special exhibitions. To ensure everyone’s experience at the Museum is pleasant, entry may be timed every 30 minutes, with the last entry at 8:30 pm.
Image via Isabella Stewart Gardner Instagram
Maureen Dahill is the editor of Caught in Southie and a lifelong resident of South Boston sometimes mistaken for a yuppie. Co-host of Caught Up, storyteller, lover of red wine and binge watching TV series. Mrs. Peter G. Follow her @MaureenCaught.
