Boston Art Review

04/08/2026

In Providence, controversy has arisen over the mysterious commissioning and subsequent halting of artist Ian Gaudreau’s public mural memorializing Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee killed in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2025.

Matthew Lawrence reports for our Civic Culture Desk on how an Elon Musk–backed mural project made its way to downtown Providence and the swift outcry that led to the project’s cancellation following criticism from some members of Providence’s q***r and arts communities.

Gaudreau cites city overreach for not allowing him to finish his work on private property, while the mayor called the project “divisive.”

Artist Ian Gaudreau claims city overreach, while city officials and LGBTQ community allege the Project Freedom 2025 mural is part of a Musk-funded campaign that uses art to weaponize public space.

02/24/2026

We’re looking back on 2025 in our newly published annual impact report 👀

Visit the link in our bio to read about a year defined by growth, experimentation, and a deeper investment in our region’s cultural ecosystem.

As we reflect, we can’t overstate that this work wouldn’t be possible without you. Your readership strengthens a vast network of artists, writers, and cultural spaces that depend on independent journalism to thrive.

Keep reading, sharing, and showing up in 2026 to support the future of Boston Art Review!

Read the full report at bostonartreview.com/annual-reports

02/01/2026

Wednesday’s surprise layoffs of 33 staff members at the MFA Boston caught the staff, the MFA Union, and the city off guard. A $13M operational budget shortfall and a need to “realign our organization and create a sustainable business model” is cited as the reason for the abrupt elimination of several positions. The reasons behind the selection of positions for elimination remain murky, leaving staff, the MFA Union, and the greater Boston arts community with more questions than answers. As names and positions of eliminated roles emerge, they appear to signal a shift in institutional priorities and highlight the ongoing precarity of labor in the arts.

Read More:

As names and positions of eliminated staff at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston begin to roll in, here’s what we know so far.

11/19/2025

Artists and cultural workers are navigating shifting policies, civic conversations, and funding structures that deeply impact our ability to work, gather, and create. That’s why we’re expanding our editorial mission with a new vertical launching officially in January 2026 led by our newly appointed Arts Policy & Civic Engagement editor, Kim Córdova.

This work is already resonating across the sector. Leaders from MASSCreative, the Barr Foundation, Mass Cultural Council, and others are signaling the need for more public dialogue, critical reporting, and transparency within our state’s cultural ecosystem.

And you, our readers, are central to this work. Our new tip line is now open for leads, policy questions, and issues affecting your work. We want to hear from you!

Learn more about this vertical and submit a tip at bostonartreview.com/civic-culture.

11/15/2025

In “ININA,” Gisela McDaniel’s first solo museum exhibition at , the artist offers a luminous counterpoint to the extractive histories that have shaped portraiture. Embedded with oceanic materials and sensor-activated recordings, her paintings invite viewers into a space where Indigenous sovereignty, consent, and community care are non-negotiable.

Now on the site from Issue 15, writes that against the backdrop of Ogunquit’s rocky coastline, McDaniel reconnects her sitters—and herself—to the oceanic worlds that shaped them.

“ININA” closes tomorrow, November 16 at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.

11/10/2025

Danielle Joy Mckinney says that when she paints, it’s like she’s building a dollhouse. “I want to make a space that feels warm, a space where these women can rest,” she says in conversation with our 2025 Emerging Art Writing Fellow Alyssa Gaines.

Their conversation explores how witnessing becomes an act of empathy and translation. In “Tell Me More,” Mckinney’s first American museum solo exhibition at the Rose Art Museum, the women in her paintings inhabit rooms of lush interiority. They’re smoking, sleeping, thinking, or maybe just listening to Frank Ocean. The figures might rest on a velvet sofa or sit under a warm light. The scenes may look familiar, but for Mckinney, they invite viewers to experience a version of Black womanhood that celebrates the women in her own life, but that she didn’t see represented in magazines, media, or films.

Visit the link in our bio to read the full conversation with Danielle Joy Mckinney and Alyssa Gaines. “Tell Me More” is on view at the Rose Art Museum through January 4, 2026.

Pictured: Danielle Mckinney, “Moth,” 2022. Courtesy of the artist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen, and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London | Marfa. © Danielle Mckinney. Photo credit: Nik Massey.

11/05/2025

The has introduced the Artist Pass, a new program offering Massachusetts-based artists one free entry per day for an entire year. The initiative, led by the ICA’s new director Nora Burnett Abrams, underscores the museum’s commitment to local artists as essential members of its community.

Made possible by ICA board member Leslie Riedel and her husband Scott Friend, the program has already drawn more than 570 applications in its first week.

Read the full piece by Kim Córdova at the link in our bio ⬆️

Installation view, “Portraits from the ICA Collection,” the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston, 2025–26. Photo by Mel Taing.

10/30/2025

We had a lot to celebrate on Saturday night!

Boston Art Review debuted Issue 15, revealed our brand-new arts mapping platform Radar, and toasted the opening of Street Theory Collective’s new Central Square space.

Our launch events are always a collaborative extension of what we do in print. We partner with local businesses, makers, chefs, DJs, and organizations who make Boston’s art ecosystem shine.

Thank you to our partners and friends who made this event possible!
  StreetTheoryCollective 

Production, Partnerships & Design:  
Furniture Rental & Design:  
Projections & Visual Treatments:  & @1.1.1.1.i.v 
Audio Engineering:  of  
Floral Design: .InBloom_
Lighting: Jim Manning 
Beverage Curation: Signature Cocktails   | | | | |
Culinary:  | | Caviar: | Cookies
DJs:  | .Mode | .Al_B | .Mix | .Rayvino

📸Catch the full recap and access the party photos by .Kinch on our website via the link in our bio

Missed the party? You can still order your copy of Issue 15 which includes an edition of the Radar map.

10/28/2025

The Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development held a public hearing on October 21, where artists, advocates, and policy leaders gathered to speak in support of the PLACE Act and the Creative Space Act—two bills developed by MassCreative and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) to expand investment in public art and protect creative workspaces across the state.

In our latest piece by Kim Córdova, we look at how these acts could shape the future of the Commonwealth’s cultural infrastructure and local economies.

The committee will continue to receive public testimony on both bills. December 3 is the anticipated date they will release their determination whether the bills will advance to the Ways and Means Committee, the next step in the process to moving toward a vote on the floor.

Read more at bostonartreview.com

Pictured: Working with Beyond Walls in 2018, muralist BEYUNG painted 150 Market St. in Lynn’s downtown Cultural District. Photo courtesy of Creative Collective for Beyond Walls.