Dear Friends,

Join us this month as we reopen the first-floor 18th-century galleries in the Art of the Americas Wing. Be among the first to see them on June 19, at our Juneteenth Open House, and during a special free admission day June 20.

These reimagined spaces invite us to reflect on colonial Boston and America’s founding. By integrating art from North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean—including works by Native American and Indigenous makers—the new galleries present a broad view of cultural exchange across the continent during this pivotal period.

Revisit your favorite works like Paul Revere’s Sons of Liberty Bowl, John Singleton Copley’s Watson and the Shark, and Gilbert Stuart’s portraits of George and Martha Washington to learn more about their stories. And find works that are new to you, like this dazzling piece made in New Spain in the mid-18th century that embodies the mixing of cultures in colonial Mexico at a time when new styles, ideas, materials, and techniques crossed borders and oceans. The bright red wooden screen known as a biombo—a Spanish adaptation of the Japanese term byōbu, meaning “protection from the wind”—stretches 17 feet across the gallery devoted to Asian styles in the Americas. Its 150 painted panels are rich with Spanish heraldry, scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, chinoiserie, and other symbols yet to be decoded.

This summer is a perfect time to bring family and friends to take in the old and the new and to reflect on the ways we remember our history.

June also brings the final weeks of “Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination” in the Gund Gallery. Be sure to visit this delight for the senses before it closes June 28. June is also Pride month; the MFA celebrates at our June 5 First Fridays event with a DJ, art making, and more. And don’t miss this year’s Roxbury International Film Festival, June 18 through 26, screening in person at the MFA and other venues around Boston.

Visit the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art to see (and hear) art of today with thought-provoking exhibitions on view. You can now encounter artists of the future, along with urban landscapes from the MFA’s collection, on the first floor with “Community Arts Initiative: Can You Hear the City?” Seeking to answer the exhibition’s question, artist Kelly Chen and more than 150 students from partner community organizations created this collaborative cityscape mosaic accompanied by ambient city sounds.

The MFA is full of stories both new and familiar, and full of the questions that spark our sense of wonder, fire our imaginations, and expand our vision. The freedom to explore, to feel, and to share what we find and what we feel—this is what the MFA is all about. I hope to see you in the galleries this summer!

Pierre Terjanian
Ann and Graham Gund Director