There is a new face to welcome visitors to Boston. It’s her 3-year-old in her Velcro sneakers, squatting by a boombox and draped in golden lights. The daughter of artist Rob Gibbs, she gazes unflinchingly at the 70-foot-tall mural opposite South Station, the city’s largest rail terminal.
Gibbs, who paints under the name ProBlak, was the first black artist from Boston to be commissioned to paint the revolving Dewey Square mural. Mr. Gibbs grew up in Roxbury and has been painting the walls of the city for years. This latest mural, Breathe Life Together, will be on display until May 2023. His art pays homage to Boston’s jarring people and reflects his neighborhood and home. “The best way to bring people to town is to serve home-cooked meals,” he said. “This is home cooking.”
We welcome visitors back to New England’s largest city in near pre-pandemic levels. Hotel occupancy in June was 81.8% for him, compared to his 89.8% in June 2019, but a significant improvement from the pandemic low of 5%. And with direct flights from 127 domestic and international destinations, travelers can discover innovative art, new music venues, fine dining and new, imaginative hotels.
exhibition and installation
The role of art in facilitating conversation museum in recent years. When the retrospective of painter Philip Guston, who took to the national stage in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and often explored white supremacy, anti-Semitism and violence in his work, was postponed, the conversation took off nationally. It was brought out to the stage. It takes two years to rethink and restructure the presentation. This includes things like trigger warnings and resources to help viewers prepare emotionally for the show. The postponement infuriated many in the art world, but in May the MFA opened the show.Philip Gaston Nowwas praised by many for its thoughtful approach, but some questioned the need for such an attentional function.
The exhibition is the result of the MFA’sObama Portrait Tour(September 3-October 30) is the final North American visit before the official presidential portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama return to the National Portrait Gallery. Alongside Obama’s portraits, more than 2,600 drawings, paintings and photographs of him far from South Korea will be on display. They are part of a community project that invited participants to submit portraits of leaders in their lives.
President Obama’s remarks at the opening ceremony of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington celebrated King’s vision of unity. In January, a memorial will be erected in the city of Boston to Martin Luther King, whom he met during his school days in Boston, and his wife, Coretta Scott, his king. Designed by Brooklyn-based artist Hank Willis Thomas.hugThe 20-by-40-foot sculpture will be located in Boston Common, America’s oldest public park and one of the city’s most prominent sites.
Other new art projects are decidedly more whimsical. In June, 10 of his miniature street scenes seemed to magically appear around Greater Boston. A mouse-sized installation, like a small “museum” at Seaport, anonymous mouseis an art collective that has been creating pop-ups across Sweden since 2016. Storybook scenes have spawned scavengers of all ages on his hunt.
Music venue to liven up the game
After Boston’s live music scene went quiet during the pandemic, concerts reappeared on the calendar in 2021, requiring masked audiences and proof of vaccinations. Now concert-goers are back in full force, and Boston has two of his new venues to welcome them.
Ten years after opening Cambridge’s Sinclair, where music lovers flocked for its exceptional acoustics and unobstructed views, Bowery Presents commissioned the same team to design it. road runner, a 3,500-seat music hall in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood. The general admission venue, which opened in March, has six bars and a modern industrial chic design. The 50,000-square-foot room, with multi-level views of the 60-foot stage, has already hosted Olivia Rodrigo, Leon Bridges, Lake Street Dive, and more than 30 of his acts in the fall. Reserved.
When MGM Music Hall At Fenway, which opens this month, subtle design choices such as section numbers stenciled into concrete poles remind visitors that they’re next door to America’s oldest ballpark. The 5,000-capacity venue boasts more than double the capacity of his nearby House of Blues, yet maintains intimacy with the furthest seats positioned just 110 feet from the stage. His Fenway Sports Group venture in partnership with Live Nation, whose developers say the venue is filling a void in the Boston market. Music Hall debuted at his two night stand for James Taylor, followed by Chris Stapleton, Bruno Mars and Lil Nas X.
new restaurant and craft beer
Lots of new dining options, probably the most popular Contessarecently reopened Newbury Hotel, offers Northern Italian cuisine and panoramic views. This first Boston venture from New York chef Mario Carbon offers appetizers such as squash carpaccio ($22) and mains including scallop ario olio pepperoncino ($46), offering equal parts sophistication and comfort.
When Maria Rondeau and Jumma Calderon opened La Royale In February, they did it for the love of their neighborhood, the 48-seat restaurant a block from his home in Cambridge’s Huron Village, where Calderon’s Peruvian roots and the restaurant’s staff It offers a menu with Salvadoran influences that is a tribute to Causa de pulpo (octopus potato terrine, $18) and lomo saltado (stir-fried beef, $28) pair perfectly with the menu’s pisco cocktails (starting at $14).
Moored on the East Boston waterfront, tall ship Part of the Floating Oyster Bar and also an adult playground. With sweeping skyline and harbor views, this city is both quintessential Boston and unlike anything the city has ever seen. Aboard a 245-foot ship, the raw bar serves lobster tails ($40) and sushi rolls (starting at $14). But the docks by the ship are teeming with lawn games and food stalls with shipping containers serving frozen drinks for adults, tacos ($17), sandwiches ($14), and a menu for the kids. It’s a changed place.
To mix and match dishes from 20 of Boston’s best chefs, High Street Place Being on the edge of the financial district is a good bet. At the opening ceremony in March, Mayor Michelle Wu (the first woman of color to be elected to the city’s top executives) celebrated that many of the food hall vendors are women and people of color, and welcomed Boston’s I applauded your efforts to bring in diverse cultures. to downtown. Kudzu The rice bowl ($14), banh mi sandwich ($14), and “fomen” (halfway between pho and ramen) ($14) combine Korean and Southeast Asian flavors. dive bar, James Beard-nominated Tiffany Faison, cooks New England seafood with New Orleans spices (mains from $15).When northeast of the border is the first brick-and-mortar location for the popular Mexican food truck (tacos starting at $5).I have champagne to drink bubble bath pint in Alewives Taproom.
Bostonians love craft beer, and local breweries are responding with new locations.Nantucket Cisco Brewers We arrived early in the burgeoning Seaport district, with an open-air taproom lined with food trucks.Massachusetts brewer Lord Hobo joined the neighborhood in March with its own taproom and restaurant. cross the river, lamp lighter brewing We opened our second store in the residential and retail development Cambridge Crossing. And for those who want a variety of beers around New England, broken record beer hall Featuring over 20 manufacturers in Brighton.
Renovated solid and stylish newcomer
With new facilities and classic hotel redesigns, there’s no shortage of places to check in.
In a rapidly developing seaport, Omni Hotel offers amenities almost unheard of in the city. A rooftop heated pool that can be used all year round. His 22-story hotel, which opens in September 2021, has four full-service restaurants, a lobby bar, a boulangerie, and a spa (double from $413).
Located between downtown and Boston’s North End (home of Italian restaurants) is Canopy by Hiltonis a 212-room hotel that opened in March. The canopy is designed with a local feel and includes a brasserie-style café and bikes for guests to explore the city (double from $244).
After a $200 million renovation, The Langham Boston The 312-room hotel will reopen in June 2021, featuring classic American-style rooms, marble-floored bathrooms, and a 268-piece art collection. Its craft cocktail bar, The Federal Reserve, is a nod to the property’s first occupant, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In the Financial District, it’s a short walk to Faneuil Hall, the Aquarium, and Boston Common (double from $436).
Across the Charles River, Cambridge and Somerville are also ready to welcome visitors. At the end of Central Square near Massachusetts Institute of Technology and restaurants, 907 maina boutique hotel where the classic brownstone exterior has given way to modern interiors (doubles from $175). Cumbria SomervilleThe 163-room hotel is within walking distance to Union Square, home to the newest MBTA stop. The neighborhood is poised for a major transformation (double from $212) with a long-awaited but long overdue subway extension.