Performance art that highlights the strength of the human spirit
Series
Performance Art Archive
The MFA is one of the first encyclopedic museums in the US to fully integrate performance art into its collection, exhibitions, and programs. Performance art at the MFA features a range of works by international, national and local artists, and encompasses a spectrum of live and participatory experiences, such as performances that unfold in the Museum’s galleries and engage with its collection, works that form part of cross-media contemporary art exhibitions, and interventions that appear in unexpected spaces inside the Museum or outdoors.
Since the opening of the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art in 2011, the MFA has commissioned dozens of performance artworks and organized multi-artist, one-day performance art exhibitions, including Odd Spaces and Onto Objects: Performances by Patty Chang & Jeffery Gibson. These foundational, artist-driven projects questioned the role of performance art in a museum environment and reframed visitor’s experiences of objects in the MFA’s encyclopedic collection.
The MFA has likewise presented a growing number of contemporary exhibitions across media that incorporate performance art into their checklists, including: Permission To Be Global/Prácticas Globales: Latin American Art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, Shinique Smith: BRIGHT MATTER, Conversation Piece, Crafted: Objects in Flux.
Key acquisitions related to performance art include Amalia Pica's Now Speak!, Pedro Reyes’ Colloquium and Lee Mingwei's Sonic Blossom. A 2014 presentation of Joan Jonas’ Reanimation, her first major work performed in Boston, lead to the acquisition of a related installation, Ice Drawing Sculpture.
More information and video documentation of select performance artworks can be viewed below through this chronological archive of past presentations.
Past Events
Performance Art
September 17–18, 2011
7:00 pm–12:00 am
Johnson conducts an interactive performance called "Messages."
Performance Art
September 17–18, 2011
7:00 pm–5:00 pm
Performance art: Sloss, Kerr, Rosenberg & Moore
Performance Art
September 18, 2011
11:00 am–4:00 pm
Performance art that provides insight into life on the US-Mexico border
Performance Art
March 27, 2013
7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Engage in a new performance, followed by screenings of rarely seen works
Performance Art
May 15, 2013
11:00 am–8:30 pm
Performance art activates non-traditional spaces for exhibiting art at the Museum
Performance Art
July 19, 2013
7:00 pm–8:00 pm
Pedro Reyes presents a new performance at the MFA, Pharmasphere
Performance Art
January 20, 2014
9:00 am–3:45 pm
Hear excerpts of historically significant speeches
Performance Art
January 29, 2014
6:00 pm–7:30 pm
Performance art exhibition with works by Patty Chang & Jeff Gibson
Performance Art
May 26, 2014
10:00 am–1:00 pm
The artist lies in state in a coffin, parodying the “death of the artist.”
Performance Art
May 26, 2014
3:00 pm–3:45 pm
Performance exploring the intersection of civic and military voices
Performance Art
June 25, 2014
6:00 pm–8:00 pm
Regina José Galindo performs a new artwork for the MFA
Performance Art
September 7, 2014
3:30 pm–4:00 pm
Shinique Smith choreographs a dance performance as part of the exhibition “BRIGHT MATTER”
Performance Art
October 15, 2014
7:00 pm–7:15 pm
Dancers from the Boston Ballet activate Sarah Crowner’s painting "Curtains"
Performance Art
October 22, 2014
7:30 pm–8:30 pm
Talk with Colombia’s Antanas Mockus as part of the exhibition “Conversation Piece”
Performance Art
November 13, 2014
7:00 pm–8:00 pm
Renowned performance artist Joan Jonas brings "Reanimation" to the MFA
Performance Art
December 10, 2014
7:30 pm–9:00 pm
Talk with academic Grant Kester as part of the exhibition “Conversation Piece”
Performance Art
February 11, 2015
6:30 pm–7:00 pm
Shinique Smith choreographs a dance performance as part of the exhibition “BRIGHT MATTER”
Performance Art
March 11–April 9, 2015
10:00 am–9:45 pm
Opera singers offer the gift of song to visitors at the MFA
Performance Art
April 15, 2015
7:00 pm–7:30 pm
Wilmer Wilson connects Boston’s streets with the MFA’s collection in this walking performance
Performance Art
October 12, 2015
10:00 am–4:00 pm
Witness an ancient African hairstyle from a sculpture in the collection re-created by the hands of stylist Kathy Montrevil on the head of artist Sonya...
Performance Art
November 9, 2015–February 19, 2016
10:00 am–9:45 pm
For her first solo exhibition, Boston-based artist Marilyn Arsem carries out the most durational performance to date of ther four-decade-long career...
Performance Art
April 6–10, 2016
2:00 pm–7:00 pm
Lake Maligne is a seven-minute dance performance inspired by the exhibition "The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris."
Performance Art
July 8, 2016
12:30 pm–4:00 pm
Jakarta-based artists Tita Salina (b. 1973) and Irwan Ahmett (b. 1975) present Urban Play–Playing Data, a four-part performance and the culmination of...
Performance Art
April 21, 2017
6:30 pm–8:00 pm
What brings us together? What sets us apart? Originating in London, gentlemen’s clubs became popular in much of the world during the19th century as...
Performance Art
May 19, 2017
6:30 pm–8:00 pm
This evening gathering of diverse voices in “Club Americano” addresses how we perceive distant times and places through optical illusions, printed...
Performance Art
June 2, 2017
6:30 pm–8:00 pm
A series of presentations inside “Club Americano” explore contemporary notions of American identity. Through academic and personal perspectives, we...
Performance Art
March 9, 2018
6:00 pm–9:00 pm
Learn to embroider while hand-sewing the civic study questions and answers that appear on the US naturalization test. This workshop is for anyone who...
Performance Art
October 19, 2018
9:00 pm–9:40 pm
Chilean-born, New York–based artist Cecilia Vicuña stages a participatory meditative performance in conjunction with the opening of her exhibition,...
Sponsors
Performance Art at the MFA is supported by Lorraine Bressler.