Yesterday's Tomorrow: Activating History Today
How is history formed, understood, and lived again within the present? The question accompanies recently renewed calls for the removal of historical markers that monumentalize racist ideas and individuals, as conversations about historical narratives—and the power of making these narratives visible—gain new urgency.
Not all stories have been granted the privilege of a pedestal. Presenting recent projects and ongoing research, artist lauren woods and Maria Madison, Founder and Co-President of the Robbins House, Concord, amplify less visible narratives, threads of Massachusetts history that sit outside the lens through which this past has been conventionally presented and remembered. In revealing what isn’t being told, both propose new means for finding and activating history in today’s lived experience and offer new modes of memorial-making.
lauren and Maria will each present recent projects. lauren will share her proposal for "Crispus in July," a public art project exploring the legacy and mythology of Crispus Attucks; Maria will discuss her research on the letters of early anti-slavery advocate and educator Ellen Garrison at the Robbins House. Following their presentations, lauren and Maria will be joined in conversation by Caitlin Julia Rubin (Associate Curator & Director of Programs, Rose Art Museum) and Leah Triplett Harrington (Assistant Curator, Now+There).
"Crispus in July" was commissioned by the Boston-based Revolutionary Spaces, a new organization founded at the start of this year to explore the ongoing American struggle to create and sustain a free society as evoked by the two buildings that it cares for – Boston's Old South Meeting House and the Old State House. "Crispus in July" was curated by Now + There.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
lauren woods (Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, Brandeis University) is a conceptual artist whose interdisciplinary projects—film, video and sound installations, socially-engaged public interventions, and site-specific work—engage history and sociopolitical systems to critique structures of power. Her primary research traces racial histories in the built environment through monument/memorial work. Driving woods' critical and creative inquiry, is the question of how best to translate the practice of traditional monument-making into new contemporary objects of public memory that serve the movement for racial and historical justice.
Born in Kansas City, MO, and raised in Dallas, TX, woods holds a BA in Radio, Television and Film and a BA in Spanish with a sociology minor from the University of North Texas. In 2006, she received her Masters of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, including Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Miami as well as Puerto Rico, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Mali, and France. She has been the recipient of grants and awards from institutions such as Creative Capital, The Tribeca Film Foundation, College Art Association, Alliance of Artists Communities, and the San Francisco Foundation.
Maria Madison (Director for the Institute on Assets and Social Policy and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University)
Since 1983, Dr. Maria Madison has built her career around evidence-based research methods. This has included conducting and supervising significant research projects on multicultural and clinical, global issues focused on diverse populations and settings, particularly involving marginalized populations from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, previously known as Zaire, and Cameroon.
Parallel to this career Maria spent 17 years managing clinical research studies including in the private sector and founded a nonprofit/museum, The Robbins House, Inc., which is a historic site with a conceptual framework of reducing race bias through teaching history. In addition to being the Director for the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, she is also an adjunct professor and contractor with Partners in Health’s University for Global Health Equity in Rwanda and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Health Equity and Principal Investigator for work on Mental Health and Race Equity.
Caitlin Julia Rubin is the Associate Curator & Director of Programs at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. Since joining the Rose, she has organized exhibitions and projects by Mark Dion, Rosalyn Drexler, Jennie C. Jones, Tuesday Smillie, and Caroline Woolard, among others; collaborated with visiting artists to foster new, site-responsive initiatives; and curated numerous collection-focused presentations, including Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Selections from the Rose Collection, 1933–2018.
Leah Triplett Harrington is a curator, writer, and editor. As assistant curator for Now + There she facilitates the Public Art Accelerator and also organizes large-scale public art commissions, most recently The Shape of Play by Sari Carel and ¡Provecho! by Justin Favela. As an independent curator, she has organized projects for Boston University Art Galleries, Trestle Gallery, and others. She is also a founding editor of publication and platform The Rib and editor-at-large for Boston Art Review. Her writing has most recently appeared in The Rib as well as Flash Art, Hyperallergic, WBUR's The Artery, Big Red & Shiny, and The Brooklyn Rail.
ABOUT OUR PARTNERS
Now + There (N+T) is a non-profit public art curator changing the landscape with temporary and site-specific public artworks. Through its curatorial efforts, N+T is transforming Boston into a public art city by creating a portfolio of projects that supports artistic risk-taking in order to catalyze community dialogue and cultural change. (www.nowandthere.org). lauren woods’ project Crispus in July was commissioned by Revolutionary Spaces and curated by Now + There.
The Robbins House is a Concord-based nonprofit organization focused on raising awareness of Concord’s African, African American, and antislavery history from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Their mission is to reveal the little known African American history of Concord and its regional and national importance. Their vision is to inspire conversation, expand understanding, and contribute to a better society.
Revolutionary Spaces brings people together to explore the American struggle to create and sustain a free society, singularly evoked by Boston’s Old South Meeting House and Old State House. They steward these buildings as gathering spaces for the open exchange of ideas and continuing practice of democracy, inspiring all who believe in people's power to govern themselves.
This program, generously supported by Jolie Schwab '78 and David Hodes '77, is co-organized by the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University and Now + There, and is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Yesterday’s Tomorrow.
While our physical galleries are currently open only to the Brandeis campus community, the exhibition can be virtually explored through materials and installation images on our website.