The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy is excited to announce the first-ever national Open Call for the 2026 Dewey Square Mural, in partnership with Embrace and Everyone250. This landmark commission marks a significant moment of artistic and civic engagement in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary, expanding America’s story while boldly envisioning the next 250 years.
This collaborative effort features a national Request For Qualifications (RFQ), with a two-phase artist selection process led by a panel of Boston’s community leaders, artists, and cultural stakeholders. Five finalists will be awarded $5,000 to develop and submit full mural proposals, and the selected artist or artist team will receive a $25,000 commission along with a $50,000 production budget.
Application Materials:
About the 2026 Open Call
For 2026, The Greenway, Embrace, and Everyone250 reimagine this commission as an open call—welcoming artists nationwide to apply to help mark this pivotal anniversary. The selected mural will respond to this moment of national reflection by engaging with the spirit of revolution, belonging, and democracy in Boston, New England, and beyond, through celebrating voices, stories, and communities often excluded from the dominant narrative, as well as envisioning the next 250 years of Boston.
Unveiled in the lead-up to the 250th anniversary, the mural will serve as a catalyst for conversations about how Boston’s past, present, and future intersect on its streets and in its shared spaces.
In Phase I, the Artist Selection Committee will select five finalists who will each be awarded $5,000 to develop and submit full mural proposals. During Phase II, the Committee will evaluate the finalists’ mural proposals and select one artist or artist team to commission for the 2026 Dewey Square Mural. The commissioned artist will receive a $25,000 artist fee, along with a $50,000 production budget. Additionally, the four runner-up finalists will be invited to display their mural proposals and additional artwork on large-scale stanchions at Dewey Square Plaza from June 2026 – December 2026, creating further opportunities for public engagement.
The 2026 Dewey Square Artist Selection Committee includes a range of regional arts and culture leaders, artists, and community members, including Jha D Amazi, Ché Anderson, Tessa Bachi Haas, L’Merchie Frazier, Jameson Johnson, Kenny Mascary, Jeneé Osterheldt, Jasper A. Sanchez, Lisa Tung, and Zhidong Zhang.
Stay connected with updates on these and related public programs as they are announced throughout the fall on our social media channels: @greenwaypublicart, @embracebos, and @everyone_250.
Lead Facilitators
Liz Teblanc
Vice President, Arts & Culture | Embrace Boston
Elizabeth is an Afro-Latina who comes to Embrace Boston with roots in arts and education. She holds a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and a MEd in Education Policy and Leadership from American University. While working as an artist educator, she collaborated with Boston school communities to develop programming that places arts and culture representative of students’ racial diversity at the center of education. She is dedicated to shifting cultural norms of oppression penetrating communities across generations. She finds joy in cooking and feeding as an act of love and serves her community locally as well as in her parents’ home island of Puerto Rico.
Audrey N. Lopez, PhD
Director & Curator of Public Art | The Greenway Conservancy
Audrey N. Lopez, PhD is a curator, researcher, writer, and connector working at the intersection of public art, installation, and design across New England and Southern California. Grounded in participatory approaches to public space, Lopez’s curatorial practice works to strengthen communities’ relationships to public land and ecologies through art that inspires sustained civic engagement and creative collective action.
Her curatorial work has been featured in Artforum, ARTnews, ArchDaily, designboom, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, KCRW, The Boston Globe, WBUR, and Boston Art Review. Lopez earned her PhD from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and has taught courses at both UCSB and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). A multiracial Filipina American woman raised in a rural area of Maryland, Lopez is most at home working at unexpected borderlands of all kinds.
Selection Committee Members
Zhidong Zhang
Visual Artist & Professor | Based in Brooklyn, NY
Zhidong Zhang is a Brooklyn-based visual artist working across photography, sculpture, and installation. Their practice investigates image-making as a form of historical intervention, reconstructing visual materials to reimagine narratives and cultivate alternative modes of understanding.
Zhang’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, i-D Magazine, and Boston Art Review, and has been exhibited internationally. Their research has been supported by the Creator Labs Photo Fund, Collective Futures Fund, and Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, with residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, MASS MoCA, Center for Photography at Woodstock, TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image, and Boston Center for the Arts. Zhang currently teaches at Dartmouth College and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.
Tessa Bachi Haas
Assistant Curator | ICA/Boston
Tessa Bachi Haas is assistant curator at the ICA/Boston, where she has organized and supported over a dozen exhibitions since 2022. Tessa is committed to supporting local arts ecologies and fostering an expansive, global exhibition program. Her recent projects include organizing Christian Marclay: Doors, the 2025 James and Audrey Foster Prize, and supporting the first museum survey of Derrick Adams. She has previously held curatorial positions in Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., and has contributed to over 30 exhibitions and catalogues in these cities. Tessa is a Ph.D Candidate in History of Art at Bryn Mawr College, where she earned her MA in 2019.
Lisa Tung
Founding Executive and Artistic Director | MAAM
Lisa Tung is the Founding Executive and Artistic Director of the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM). MAAM is Boston’s only free contemporary art museum, and a space to experience works by extraordinary artists at the forefront of contemporary art. As MassArt’s esteemed teaching museum, MAAM offers groundbreaking exhibitions and programs that bring contemporary art to the public while providing unparalleled educational opportunities for MassArt. For almost three decades, Lisa participated in the creation and support of a vibrant arts and culture ecosystem for the Commonwealth, including curating numerous solo and group exhibitions.
L'Merchie Frazier
Visual Activist, Public Artist, and Historian | Based in Boston, MA
L’Merchie Frazier is an international multimedia visual activist, public artist, and historian. She uses innovative visual media, poetry, and textile language as design elements to create restorative narratives highlighting five hundred years of Black and Indigenous experience. Her visual art stories are carefully researched and joyously create textile integrations for reclaiming the lives and legacies of history’s missing people. Her work marshals archival materials as literal threads linking historical petitions, speeches, letters, lawsuits, newspaper clippings and photographs.
Previously, Frazier was the Director of Education and Interpretation for the Museum of African American History, Boston/Nantucket. She is a recipient of the Boston Foundation Brother Thomas Fellowship and the inaugural Wagner Arts Foundation Fellowship. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the White House, the Dallas Museum of Art, North Dakota Museum of Art, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Museum of Art and Design, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Currently, she is co-teaching a graduate course, Hacking the Archives, as MLK Visiting Professor and Scholar in MIT’s Department of Urban Planning.
Kenny Mascary
Interim Chief of Arts & Culture | Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, City of Boston
Kenny Mascary is a multi-disciplinary creative and cultural producer with a track record of activating bold ideas across projects, partnerships, and platforms. As an emergent strategist, he shapes initiatives that evolve in real time: responsive to context, grounded in intuition, and guided by deep cultural insight. Skilled in navigating complexity, Mascary facilitates stakeholder alignment while cultivating participation that’s authentic, sustained, and impactful. Whether crafting public art experiences, designing strategic frameworks, or architecting new modes of collaboration, he centers cultural storytelling as a transformative tool for connection and change. Passionate about amplifying narratives that inspire and mobilize, Mascary brings a visionary, iterative approach to building creative ecosystems that move communities and shift culture.
Jha D Amazi
Principal | MASS Design Group
As a Principal at MASS Design Group, Jha D leads the Public Memory and Memorials Lab, engaging communities to design projects such as the Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument Project (Chicago, IL), the Gun Violence Memorial Project (Chicago, IL; Washington D.C.; Boston, MA; Detroit, MI), and the Sugar Land 95 Cemetery Revitalization Project (Sugar Land, TX).
Beyond her contributions at MASS, Jha D is a spoken word artist, event producer, and SpaceMaker for the LGBTQ+ communities of color. In 2023, she was appointed to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Black Empowerment by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. Jha D graduated with honors from Northeastern University (B.S. Arch) and the University of Pennsylvania (M. Arch I). Prior to joining MASS, she worked as a Designer at Sasaki and taught studio at the Boston Architectural College.
Jeneé Osterheldt
Writer & Columnist | The Boston Globe
Jeneé Osterheldt is a prominent journalist and cultural critic, currently serving as the Deputy Managing Editor for Culture, Talent, and Development at The Boston Globe. Her work focuses on identity, social justice, and the arts, with a particular emphasis on centering Black lives and the experiences of people of color. In 2020, she launched A Beautiful Resistance, a multimedia platform and docuseries that celebrates Black joy and resilience. Through essays, films, interviews, and community engagement, the project aims to reclaim narratives and highlight the richness of Black life beyond struggle. Osterheldt’s impactful storytelling has earned her numerous accolades, including the 2023 Online Journalism Award for Commentary, a 2022 Edward R. Murrow Award, and recognition as one of Boston’s Most Influential Bostonians.
A native of Alexandria, Virginia, she is a graduate of Norfolk State University and was a 2017 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where she studied the intersection of art and justice. Before joining The Boston Globe in 2018, she was a culture columnist at The Kansas City Star. You can follow her work on Instagram @sincerely.jenee and explore A Beautiful Resistance at bostonglobe.com.
Jasper A. Sanchez
Assistant Curator | Boston Public Art Triennial
Jasper A. Sanchez (he | they) is a Venezuelan-Colombian from Miami who works as a curator and cultural organizer across Boston. Their contemporary curatorial practice melds queer diasporas and reimagines public space to achieve creative justice and uplift artists. He is currently Boston Public Art Triennial’s Assistant Curator, where he produces large-scale, temporary, and site-specific public art experiences. Sanchez facilitates the annual Public Art Accelerator– a skill-building and grant-funding program designed to support early-to-mid-career Boston-based artists in creating public art projects in Boston neighborhoods.
Sanchez has curated exhibitions with the Boston LGBTQIA+ Artist Alliance, Boston Cyberarts, Boston Center for the Arts, and Tufts University Art Galleries. Their writing and programming appear in Boston Art Review. He is also part of Mobius Artists Group and the inaugural Collective Futures Fund Advisory Council. Sanchez holds a BA in Art History & Critical Theory from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.
Jameson Johnson
Founder & Executive Director | Boston Art Review
Jameson Johnson is a writer, curator, and community organizer based in Boston. She is the founder and executive director at Boston Art Review, an online and print publication founded in 2017 committed to facilitating discourse around contemporary art across New England. She has held positions at the MIT List Visual Arts Center and currently serves on the board of Catalyst Conversations and the Foundry Arts Consortium’s Advisory Committee as well as the MassArt Auction Committee. She has curated exhibitions at Boston Center for the Arts, Fountain Street Gallery, and Boston Cyberarts, as well as served on numerous juries across New England. Her writing has appeared in Artsy, Artnet, Upstate Diary, and the Boston Globe among others.
Ché Anderson
Public Servant & Civic Innovator | Based in Worcester, MA
Ché Anderson is a Worcester-based public servant and civic innovator known for connecting communities and sectors. Often described as a “human bridge” for his ability to connect diverse groups, he serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor for City & Community Relations at UMass Chan Medical School, forging partnerships between the campus and the broader community.
Anderson’s commitment to community uplift and creative placemaking shines through in his passion for the arts. He founded POW! WOW! Worcester, an international mural festival, transforming public spaces and sparking a public art renaissance in Massachusetts’ second-largest city. Serving previously, as Worcester’s Deputy Cultural Development Officer, he championed cultural equity through public art and citywide events. Anderson’s warm, inclusive leadership style continues to bring people together and ensure community voices are heard. His recent endeavors include serving as a trustee of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Greater Worcester Community Foundation, and member of Governor Healey’s Black Empowerment Council.
About the Dewey Square Mural
Since 2012, the Dewey Square Mural has served as a focal point for bold, contemporary, and thought-provoking public art in downtown Boston. Working with a range of renowned artists, ten murals have been installed to date, each viewed by millions of residents, commuters, and tourists, and each sparking conversation and connection in Boston’s shared public space. Six of the murals have been presented in collaboration with curatorial partners, including Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (2012, 2013), the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (2014), MIT’s List Visual Arts Center (2015), the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (2017), and Mass MoCA (2024).
Previously commissioned artists include Os Gemeos (2012), Matthew Ritchie (2013), Shinique Smith (2014), Lawrence Weiner (2015), Mehdi Ghadyanloo (2016), Shara Hughes (2018), Super A (2019), Daniel Gordon (2021), and Jeffrey Gibson (2024). In 2022, Boston-based artist Problak and the GN Crew made history as the first local artist team to be featured, launching a mural beloved by Boston’s communities, and which stayed on view for 24 months, the longest run in the program’s history.
A Special Thank You to Our Supporters
The 2026 Dewey Square Mural is supported in part by the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism.
Public Art on The Greenway is made possible with major support from the Barr Foundation, Goulston & Storrs, the Greenway Business Improvement District, Meet Boston, the Wagner Foundation, the Richard K. Lubin Family Foundation, Mass Cultural Council, Robert and Doris Gordon, and the New Commonwealth Fund. Additional support is provided by the Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee.
Embrace and Everyone250’s collaboration for the 2026 Dewey Square Mural is made possible through major support from the Barr Foundation, Nellie Mae, the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, and the City of Boston.
About The Greenway and the Greenway Conservancy
The Rose Kennedy Greenway is a contemporary public park in the heart of Boston and one of the most visited attractions in the Commonwealth, welcoming millions of visitors annually. The Greenway is managed by the Greenway Conservancy, a non-profit responsible for the administration and care of the park. The majority of the Conservancy’s annual budget is made up of generous donations from the community, and it is with their support that the Conservancy cultivates a gathering space where all are welcome and celebrated.
The Greenway Conservancy Public Art Program brings innovative and contemporary art to Boston through free, seasonal exhibitions that engage people in meaningful experiences, interactions, and dialogue with art, each other, and the most pressing issues of our time. Past Greenway exhibitions can be viewed on the Public Art Instagram (@greenwaypublicart) or the Conservancy’s website.
About Embrace
Working at the intersection of arts, culture, community and research to dismantle structural racism, Embrace sees a radically inclusive and equitable Boston where everyone belongs and Black people prosper, grounded in joy, love and wellbeing. Embrace aims to connect, educate, and energize within our communities and across traditional borders to cultivate the conditions necessary for racial and economic justice in Boston.
About Everyone250
Everyone250 is a living platform for reimagining Boston’s history. Rooted in storytelling, cultural activation, and civic engagement, it honors voices too often left out while inviting new ones in. As Boston approaches the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, Everyone250 offers a space to reflect, rewrite, and help build a more honest and inclusive future — one story at a time.
