2020 was a strange and challenging year for the art world. The pandemic forced galleries and museums to adapt quickly, find more flexibility in programming, and double down on safety. As Mayor Walsh calls for the extended closure of Boston’s museums, we at AOG are reflecting on the resiliency and perseverance of the Boston arts community. Many museums and galleries have had to shift focus this year from in-person shows to virtual events, often traversing unknown territories for both organizations and audiences. The arts community has persisted in keeping the arts alive and thriving for the city of Boston through innovation and ingenuity in the face of uncertainty.
See below for a few ways your favorite museums and galleries created new virtual artistic spaces in 2020, so we may all continue to look to the arts as a source of light and hope as 2021 begins.
A screenshot from the MFA Boston’s online content available for viewing. From the MFA Boston: “Katie Hanson, associate curator, Paintings, Art of Europe, and curator of “Monet and Boston: Lasting Impression,” discusses Monet’s unique way of seeing the everyday and how he “trained the modern eye” through his paintings.”
At the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the show Monet and Boston: Lasting Impression was set to open in April 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic. The exhibit “offers a rare opportunity to see all 35 of the Museum’s oil paintings by Monet, among the largest and finest groups of the artist’s works in the world.” The show officially opened on November 15, 2020 and will remain on view in the Linde Family Wing galleries until February 28, 2021. With the museum closed again, the MFA created a video to capture the exhibit as well as give viewers the opportunity to peek behind the scenes of the show with curators and experts. Watch the video here! Curator Kate Hanson discusses her vision stating, “I really wanted to keep the exhibition grounded in the artist’s lifetime...it places you with the artist in action and then keeping that at the heart of the exhibition using the artist’s own words and the words of the people, Bostonians, Parisians, others, who saw Monet’s paintings when they were brand new.” The virtual overview explores the acquisition history, provides historical contextualization, and delves into the stylistic choices of the curators that worked together to help tell the story of Monet’s life and work.
A screenshot from the ICA Boston’s First Fridays Contemporary Cookout with Tooky Kavanagh (September 8, 2020). View on Vimeo.
Another museum adapting to these strange times is the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, which is closed to the public but by no means shut down. Instead, the museum has reshaped their programming to meet the needs of their audience. Their website offers everything from cooking lessons, recordings of First Fridays, past musical shows, forums and celebrations, promising upcoming virtual screenings of documentaries that explore everything from Mass MoCA to the life of Louise Bourgeois. Check out the full array of virtual activities here! We found the First Fridays at Home to be particularly powerful, seeing artists in their intimate elements, transforming their own space into stages, to dance, to perform spoken word poetry, to live and breathe vulnerability. It is a uniquely art-in-COVID-times experience and well worth checking out.
At Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, we too have adjusted in these shifting and unsettled times. We hosted several virtual events last year with both artists on view and as guest speakers. We connected over Zoom, tracing back to a time when gallery openings toasted rooms of crowded people. And while we miss the in-person energy, finding new ways to connect and learn has been a rewarding experience. To view recordings of our past events, visit our YouTube Channel.
The Boston arts community is strong and inventive, battling everything 2020 has thrown at us with a fervor. We hope that in 2021 the arts world will continue to uplift and unify, connecting artists and patrons as they always have, and always will.
Written by Alexi Fee, Gallery Associate
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