Dear Friends,
In her State of the City address on January 9, Mayor Michelle Wu announced an unprecedented partnership between Boston’s leading cultural institutions to make Boston Public Schools students feel at home in the places that show them the world. This free cultural access program builds upon our long-standing commitment to serving as a place of learning, discovery, and creativity for Boston and New England students. Starting in February 2024, on the first and second Sundays of each month, every BPS student and up to three family members will get free admission to the MFA as well as the Boston Children’s Museum, the Franklin Park Zoo, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Science, and the New England Aquarium.
We’re proud to partner with the City on this initiative expanding access for BPS students and their families, and thank the Mayor for her leadership. It’s an important demonstration of our shared belief that access to the arts is integral in building strong communities. We look forward to welcoming BPS students and their families to the MFA through this program—a bold invitation and a declaration that cultural institutions are places where all belong.
This winter visitors can enjoy recent acquisitions and gifts of art on view throughout the Museum. These works, new to us, allow our curators to expand the stories they can tell about art and artists. Through a recent major gift, we are able to share with you “Mondrian: Foundations,” an illuminating journey from the artist’s earliest foundational work of landscapes and flowers, to experimental dynamic abstractions, developing the radical new style for 20th-century painting for which he is best known, reminding us that artistic style comes from an artist’s process of learning, discovering meaning, and responding to the world.
“Marking Resilience: Indigenous North American Prints” celebrates a growing area of the MFA’s collection, featuring 30 newly acquired works—all sharing resilience as a theme—by Indigenous artists from the United States and Canada. The vibrant work on view demonstrates the creativity, experimentation, and resilience of these printmakers, rooted in their Indigenous communities.
New works allow us to share new stories. Expanding understanding of art and artists, from ancient to contemporary, gives all who visit the MFA ways to engage with the creativity of the world’s cultures. We are proud to expand opportunities for increased access and welcome the young people of Boston and their families to the MFA.
Matthew Teitelbaum
Ann and Graham Gund Director