Between May and September, artists and activists Ekua Holmes (African American, b. 1955) and Elizabeth James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag, b. 1973) will create a “Garden for Boston” outside the MFA’s main entrance.
This year the Roxbury Sunflower Project is honored to install “Radiant Community,” an experimental installation made of flowers. Over the spring and summer season, 4 varieties of Sunflower will grow into a field and totem on the lawn of the Museum of Fine Arts/Boston. Sunflowers represent, among other things, resilience, self-determination, and the ability for a community to evolve and emerge while staying grounded in its history and traditions. “Radiant Community” is an invitation for the public to be surrounded by beauty, color, and fragrance. The sunflowers essential attributes mirror those that are reflected in the cultural traditions of Roxbury’s Black Community and must now be collectively amplified in our society. Resilience, Radiance, Deep Roots, Transformation, Heliotropism, Planting Seeds, and Beauty. To extend the reach and impact of this installation, free Sunflower seeds and planting instructions will be available to everyone at the public launch event (TBA) for sharing and planting at home.“Beauty is a basic service*” that aids in the wellbeing and healing of the community. With a spectrum of colors that uplift and bring joy, "Radiant Community" also partners with nature to attract endangered pollinators such as bees and butterflies. “Radiant Community” is a part of The Roxbury Sunflower Project, now in its fourth year of annually distributing 10,000 sunflower seeds to children, families and organizations to plant individually and staging sunflower plantings in collaboration with community organizations and businesses.
*Theaster Gates