Dear Boston: Messages from the Marathon Memorial
To mark the one-year anniversary of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, I curated an exhibition of items that were left at the makeshift memorial at Copley Square. I surveyed the memorial collection to select objects for exhibition, developed the interpretive concept, and wrote the exhibit text.
During its five-week run at the Boston Public Library, 52,000 visitors came to see the exhibition, the centerpiece of the #BostonBetter consortium’s efforts to respond to this milestone. The project garnered national and international press and won a Leadership in History Award from the American Association for State and Local History.
“How culture can help a city rebuild after tragedy,” a TED article about the exhibition, explores why arts and culture matter so much to communities in the aftermath of tragedy.
Photos by Christian Phillips