Currently one way DS4SI is working with local artists is through our ExpressingBoston Public Art Fellowship. Each year 8-12 artists spend 9 months as a cohort, supporting each other as they think through and test new ways to do their art practice in public spaces along the Fairmount Line. We are particularly interested in working with artists who are creating social interventions and public art in ways that increase the authority which artists and community members feel to claim public spaces in their neighborhoods.

ExpressingBoston’s three goals are:

To uplift and share the rich histories, traditions, identities and assets of Boston’s ethnic communities, particularly those in neighborhoods that have been historically marginalized in Boston.
To diversify the types of art created and presented across Boston by providing opportunities to uplift art forms and/or traditions that are not typically represented in galleries and museums.
To challenge and destabilize normalized notions of what qualifies as art, who can create art, how art should be made, where art should be exhibited, and how audiences should engage with art.

Participating artists receive a stipend of $5,000 and up to $2,000 for materials for their engagement in this fellowship. ExpressingBoston is funded by the Boston Foundation.