Boston will use a $3 million grant to ‘un-monument, re-monument, de-monument’

Boston recently received funding to raise awareness about its existing monuments and introduce new ones across the city.

The Mellon Foundation, which developed “The Monuments Project,” is granting the city $3 million for Boston’s initiative, which it has dubbed “Un-monument | Re-monument | De-Monument: Transforming Boston,” according to the foundation.

Karin Goodfellow, Boston’s director of public art, told Boston.com that while the grant is new, the city’s conversation surrounding monuments has been going on for years.

“We’ve put up really important monuments, we took down a couple and had conversations at those times, but the conversation hasn’t continued in public in the same way that we think we should be having that conversation,” she said.

With the grant, the city will promote open dialogue about existing monuments, while introducing new and temporary artwork to discuss.

“What are the stories that we’re telling? What are the histories that we’re elevating? How are we learning about who we really are as a city? How are we using that as a way to connect with each other and, also, envision what comes next without just kind of repeating how things have been done in the past?” Kara Elliott-Ortega, Boston’s chief of arts and culture, said are some of the questions the city has in mind.

She added that the money is not going to be used to just take down monuments and erect new ones in their place. The dialogue is meant to pave the way for more long-term planning.

A first step for the city is to create an advisory committee, which will plan during the fall. The goal, Goodfellow said, is to start implementing projects in the spring and summer of next year.

Community partners will also play a role in planning, and local artists will likely be asked to contribute work in the future.

“Artists have been leading a lot of the conversation in the city around this and doing their own projects,” Elliott-Ortega said. “So this will be a really great way to engage them further and to try to bring a conversation together that I think has been happening in a lot of different spaces across the city.”

Goodfellow said Boston is already a hub for learning, and people often visit to learn about the past, which sets a “great tone for the conversations we want to have.”

“We have a lot of great storytelling happening already in our public space in Boston,” she said, adding that the city also has “some stories that have been left out.”

Boston may even have to “revisit the very term” monument, Goodfellow said, to make sure it encompasses all that the city is trying to offer.

“It’s really nuanced,” she said. “So I think [we need] to spend a little time examining what is familiar and what is sometimes taken for granted, and to think a little bit more deeply about what we want to express about who we are.”