The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston

01/24/2025

There’s a new face at the ICA! A few of them, actually…

Opening tomorrow, “Portraits from the ICA Collection” examines what drives artists to portraiture, reflecting the richness of diverse narratives and a wide range of styles and representation. See new acquisitions to the collection on view at the ICA for the first time next to iconic cornerstone works you know and love!

Learn more → https://loom.ly/UoA1UUg

Lucy Kim, Dr. Melissa Doft, Plastic Surgeon 1 (detail), 2016. | Hew Locke, Europa (detail), 2007. | David Antonio Cruz, thosebutterflyboys (detail), 2017, from the series returnofthedirtyboys/girls (2016–ongoing). | Didier William, Gwo Tet, 2021.

01/22/2025

Spotted: you STUNNING at First Friday!

On February 7, step into a night of glam and groove at the first First Friday of the year! Shine on the dance floor, create shimmering art, and take in our stunning exhibitions. We’re so back.

Tickets now available! Get them while you can → https://loom.ly/PxoLBxc

Photo by Mel Taing

ICA First Fridays are presented by Chase.

Tickets will go on sale January 15 for ICA Members and January 22 for the general public. Step into a night of glam and groove! Get inspired by Charles Atlas’s pioneering media-dance works in the gallery and… more

01/20/2025

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! We’re proud to celebrate with Embrace Boston the outstanding leaders and change-makers in Boston and beyond who have worked to exemplify the values King championed in his life and legacy.

The 2025 Embrace Honors MLK recognized 5 couples who have shaped our communities and embodied the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King: ICA Director Jill Medvedow and Richard Kazis, Former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and First Lady Lauren Baker, Former Massachusetts Governor and ICA Board Member Deval Patrick and First Lady Diane Patrick, Sandra and John M. Borders, III, and Dr. Thea James and Rev. Irene Monroe.

We are thrilled to honor these individuals dedicated to building a better Boston on the second anniversary of the unveiling of "The Embrace," commemorating the love shared between the inspiring couple through a 20-foot tall bronze sculpture in Boston Common.

Photo by Kris Wilton

01/19/2025

Your Martin Luther King, Jr. Day plans are on us! Visit the ICA for free, catch our closing exhibitions one last time, and join Boston-based social justice project Wee the People for an all-ages art-making workshop in honor of the civil rights icon.

Get free tickets → https://loom.ly/iR3nzzE

Photo by Lauren Miller

The ICA is offering FREE admission for all on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, January 15. Free advanced tickets are required and will be available to reserve beginning on Sunday, January 14 at 10 AM.

01/17/2025

Next week, celebrate the life and legacy of Pierre Boulez, one of the most influential composers of the last century, in a one-night-only concert at the ICA! Catch the Boston-based Sound Icon bringing to life the extraordinary range, color, and depth of Boulez’s revolutionary music.

Tickets start at $15! → https://loom.ly/OaJzBr4

French composer Pierre Boulez (1925–2016) was among the most influential composers and music educators of the last hundred years. Consistently challenging the musical status quo, Boulez’s music transformed and revolutionized the contemporary musical landscape. In addition to… more

01/16/2025

Closing this weekend: Walk through “The Gun Violence Memorial Project” and “Tau Lewis: Spirit Level” one last time!

Ponder what it means to memorialize an ongoing tragedy through individual personal narratives in this poignant, multi-site, city-wide collaboration, and experience Tau Lewis’s monumental and intricate figures united by a shared cosmology and material history.

See them before they come down → https://loom.ly/R9HbZxA

Installation view, The Gun Violence Memorial Project, ICA/Boston, 2024-25. Photo by Lauren Miller. | Installation view, Tau Lewis: Spirit Level, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024–25. Photo by Mel Taing.

01/14/2025

Ever feel like peering into the unknown?

Experience a cascade of numbers, lines, and movement in this mesmerizing, site-specific installation “Plato’s Alley.” Known for his pivotal works in film and dance, artist Charles Atlas assigned a set of limitations for himself to create a body of work defined by numbers, lines, and geometric abstractions.

Check out this immersive field of lines and numbers and more in “Charles Atlas: About Time” → https://loom.ly/Ia7IiYI

Charles Atlas, Plato's Alley, 2008. Installation view, Charles Atlas: About Time, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024–25. Photo by Mel Taing.

Charles Atlas: About Time is the first U.S. museum survey of the pioneering artist who brought dance to film. On view October 10, 2024 – March 16, 2025.

01/13/2025

This Thursday, hear from the curators of "Tau Lewis: Spirit Level" and "The Gun Violence Memorial Project" before both close next week!

In two special gallery talks, explore the role of memorials in conversation with curator Ruth Erickson, and get a closer look at the found and upcycled materials within Tau Lewis’s work with curator Jeffrey De Blois.

Both talks are free and drop-in, as space permits! Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/raX4yn4

Photos by Mel Taing

01/10/2025

Wash your hands!

Learn more → https://loom.ly/KlF6gbI

Dana Schutz, Sneeze, 2002. Oil on canvas, 19 5/8 x 18 3/4 inches (49.8 x 47.6 cm). Gift of Barbara Lee, The Barbara Lee Collection of Art by Women. Courtesy the artist and Petzel, New York. © Dana Schutz

01/09/2025

Next week, catch a slate of exceptional short films curated by BlackStar Film Festival that explore ancestral connections through time and space. These dynamic filmmakers ask, who are we if not amalgams of the people and experiences that built us?

Plus, stay for a post-screening discussion with filmmaker Luis Arnías and Maori Karmael Holmes, Chief Executive and Artistic Officer of BlackStar!

Free, no tickets required! Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/M3hwIFo

Presented in partnership with Boston Ujima Project and sponsored by Wagner Foundation

Still from Luis Arnías, Bisagras

“You do not go where your mother is not.” Taking its title from the Saidiya Hartman text Lose your mother: A journey along the Atlantic Slave Route and inspired by a print by the graphic designer Nontsikelelo Mutiti entitled… more

01/07/2025

There’s a new way to visit the ICA for free! With Boston Family Days, all school-age children living in Boston will get free admission with two guests to the ICA on the first and second Sundays of every month, starting this week! Access nine museums, zoos, and aquariums across the city with your Boston Family Days pass.

See you on Sunday! Learn more → https://loom.ly/_gVZCp0

Photo by Lauren Miller

Boston Family Days offers all Boston school-age students (Pre-K–12) and their families the opportunity to visit nine major museums and institutions for free on the first and second Sundays of each month. For 24 months, eligible Boston… more

01/06/2025

This is your two-week warning! "Tau Lewis: Spirit Level" and "The Gun Violence Memorial Project" both close on January 20! Experience intricate detail on a monumental scale and reflect on the enormity of an epidemic through individual personal narratives.

See them before it’s too late → https://loom.ly/R9HbZxA

Installation view, Tau Lewis: Spirit Level, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024–25. | Installation view, The Gun Violence Memorial Project, ICA/Boston, 2024-25.

Photos by Mel Taing

01/03/2025

In two weeks, "Eno" returns to the ICA with three unique presentations of Gary Hustwit’s groundbreaking Oscar-shortlisted documentary on the iconic musician Brian Eno! Working with generative software, Hustwit created a documentary process that produces infinite variations—each with its own archival material, interviews, backstage footage, oblique strategies, and musical numbers.

Tickets start at $10 and are going fast → https://loom.ly/2vuihw8

Following two sold-out screenings, Eno returns to the ICA with three unique presentations of Gary Hustwit’s groundbreaking documentary. Working with generative software, Hustwit created a documentary process that produces infinite variations—each with its own archival material, interviews,… mo...

01/02/2025

Many of us are looking out at the future right now, wondering what it will hold.

Visionary film and video artist Charles Atlas famously never looked back on his expansive career and portfolio, instead moving forward to the next project. Greeting visitors as the opening work of his first retrospective, “The Years” reviews decades of Atlas’s ambitious career on four monitors, visualizing the expansion of his artistic interests through 77 films and videos scrolling past like movie end credits. Behind, a night sky is projected with four young people cast in the role of arbiters staring impassively, prompting us to ask what a legacy will mean to future generations.

Learn more → https://loom.ly/Ia7IiYI

Charles Atlas, The Years, 2018. Installation view, Charles Atlas: About Time, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024–25. Photo by Mel Taing.

01/01/2025

Happy New Year! 🎉 If your new year’s resolution is to be more creative, we’ve got exactly what you need to make that happen!

🎨 Come out to Art-Making After Dark in the new year and try new artistic skills – plus try speciality cocktails!

🎤 Catch a world-class performance from our dynamic spring lineup of music, film, and dance!

🖼️ See contemporary art all year long with an ICA membership!

Photos by Lauren Miller + Ally Schmaling

12/30/2024

Starting today, the ICA will be closed through January 6 and reopen January 7. We look forward to welcoming you back in the new year!

Photo by Chuck Choi

12/27/2024

We saw lively summer concerts, celebrated and shared across cultures, heard from acclaimed voices in the arts, experienced world-class performances, and welcomed all opportunities to gather and be together in 2024! Take a look back at some of our favorite moments together, and we can't wait to share more live experiences with you in 2025!

Photos by Maria Gelsomini, Dawn Kingston, Ernesto Galan, Sebastian Parra, Maria Baranova, Lauren Miller, Andrew Cook

12/26/2024

Dazzling and vibrant mythmaking through deftly layered color. An expectation-defying time capsule of dance, theater, and expression. A fanciful and immersive plunge into the ocean depths. In 2024, we saw 11 phenomenal exhibitions grace our galleries. Take a look at some of our highlights. Here’s to many more in the new year!

Firelei Báez, A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways), 2019. Installation view, Firelei Báez, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024 | Installation view, Hew Locke: The Procession, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024 | Charles Atlas, MC9, 2012. Installation view, Charles Atlas: About Time, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024–25 | Wu Tsang, Of Whales, 2022. Installation view, Wu Tsang: Of Whales, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024 | Tammy Nguyen, Shot Heard ‘Round the World, 2023. Installation view, Tammy Nguyen, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2023-24 | Tau Lewis, The Handle of the Axe (detail), 2024. Installation view, Tau Lewis: Spirit Level, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2024–25.

Photos by Mel Taing