For Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957—the ICA’s groundbreaking survey of this legendary arts institution—I crafted all press releases, weaving the exhibition’s story into compelling narratives that resonated with both art critics and the public. I oversaw social media marketing and engaged with national and international media to coordinate interviews, ensuring the museum’s vision reached a global audience. Working closely with the museum’s director, I developed tailored speaking points that aligned curatorial insight with institutional messaging, strengthening connections between the ICA, its stakeholders, and the wider cultural community.
Celebrating 10 Years as Cultural Anchor and Boston Waterfront Icon
by Kate Shamon Rushford
The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston
When it opened in 2006, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston was a cause for city celebration. The first new art museum built in Boston in a century, the ICA and its visionary building ushered in a new era of vibrancy and excitement for the Seaport. A decade later, it has brought over 2 million visitors to the Seaport and continues to culturally enrich the area.
Seaport then—and now
In Boston, centuries of history entwine with the present, and that’s as true for the Seaport as any other neighborhood. Covered by water until the late 1800s, the Seaport evolved from a muddy pocket of Boston Harbor to a busy shipping port, and then descended into a wasteland of parking lots and abandoned warehouses by the 1950s. It was from this point that the Seaport began its modern rise. Visionary mayors Kevin White and Tom Menino fueled growth by anchoring the Seaport with the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse, and the ICA’s new waterfront home. Along with gleaming new office buildings, hot restaurants, and easy access to downtown and the airport, those anchors have made the Seaport a thriving neighborhood for work and play.
80 years of ICA history
Founded in 1936, the ICA was originally known as the Boston Museum of Modern Art and was a sister institution to New York’s MoMA. By championing innovative approaches to art, the museum cemented a reputation for identifying and introducing important new artists to the public. In 1948, the museum parted ways with MoMA, changed its name, and fully embraced its commitment to contemporary art and artists. The ICA forged a path that other contemporary art museums, artists’ spaces, and alternative venues around the globe have eagerly followed.
Reimagining its Boston home
For decades, the ICA had occupied an old converted police station on Boylston Street in Boston’s Bay Back—not optimal for a museum. When current ICA Ellen Matilda Poss Director Jill Medvedow took leadership of the museum in 1998, she immediately began seeking a new space. Her timing turned out to be prescient: Mayor Tom Menino formed the Boston 2000 commission in 1999 with the intention of awarding a waterfront site to a cultural institution. Reimagining its foothold in the city, the ICA unveiled a dramatic vision for a 65,000 square foot building designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro—and won the competition. As a result, the ICA reinvented its relationship to the city and became the first new art museum to be built in Boston in a century.
New vision for visitor experiences
Its new location afforded visitors new opportunities to engage with the museum. Instead of a four-floor gallery layout, the new building was designed with flexible, column-free galleries on a single floor. A system of skylights illuminates the exhibitions with natural light. The ICA is also now located along the 47-mile HarborWalk, making it more freely accessible to visitors.
A decade of success
Reimagining and revitalizing the ICA has yielded a decade of success and growth. In the ten years since its move, the ICA has welcomed more than 2 million visitors to the waterfront—an average of 200,000 guests annually, more than seven times the yearly average before its move. The museum’s membership has also grown to over 6,000 members. Success also extends beyond the numbers: growth in attention, space, and support has also helped the museum’s art collection flourish. “The ICA has established a collection of great variety, ranging from historically significant work of figures such as Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois to the contemporary explorations of leading artists such as Kara Walker and Paul Chan,” said Eva Respini, ICA Barbara Lee Chief Curator. For the museum that introduced many important contemporary artists to US audiences, it’s a fittingly optimistic future focused on fulfilling its mission to “share the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, provocation, and imagination that contemporary art offers through public access to art, artists, and the creative process.”
Looking toward the future
With a variety of exhibitions, performances, and events to offer the public, as well as family- and teen-friendly programming, the ICA leads a vibrant present while it plans for an equally vibrant future from its leading edge on Boston’s waterfront.
