Read & download the full press release here.
—
February 24, 2026 – BOSTON, MA –– For Immediate Release
The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the nonprofit responsible for the management and care of The Greenway, in partnership with Embrace and Everyone250, is thrilled to announce the commissioning of artist Rixy for the 2026 Dewey Square Mural following the Conservancy’s first-ever national open call for this site.
Launched in November 2025, the Open Call invited artists to apply for the 2026 Dewey Square Mural commission for thematic interpretations in dialogue with the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary. Artists were asked to reflect on the past, present, and future of Boston via expansive and inclusive storytelling that engages with themes of belonging, democracy, and the spirit of revolution in the city and and beyond.
Chosen unanimously by a panel of esteemed Boston artists, cultural leaders, and community members, Rixy’s proposal, entitled “The Midnight Ride,” responded to the call’s invitation with a fresh, inspirational and futuristic approach. Drawing upon elements of fantasy, creative worldbuilding, and a vibrant palette, Rixy’s proposal brings into dialogue parallel histories referenced in the title: the historic midnight ride undertaken by Paul Revere in 1776 and the lesser known alleged midnight ride of a young woman named Sybil Ludington one year later, who in 1777, is said to have ridden 44 miles through the night on horseback to alert U.S. troops of an impending attack from the British.
Rixy (b. Roxbury, MA, she/her) is a New England-based interdisciplinary street artist working at the intersections of global feminism, spirituality, storytelling, and social practice. Working across stylized murals, sculptures, paintings, and public art, Rixy’s wide-ranging practice draws upon her contemporary heritage and ancestral Latinx Caribbean diasporic roots to create complex, richly speculative worlds layered with visual narratives and chimerical femme protagonists. These elements appear throughout her existing large-scale public murals in Boston, Cambridge, Roxbury, and Lawrence, a body of work which the artist sees as bridging gaps between public and private spheres to activate vibrant third spaces.
Recent commissions of note from Rixy include the City of Boston and Boston’s Triennial Public Art Accelerator, alongside exhibitions at Street Theory Gallery in Cambridge, Hallspace Gallery in Dorchester, MECA Art Fair in the Dominican Republic, Rosa Projects in Oakland, CA, ICA/Boston, and with Wassaic Project’s Haunted Mill Residency in New York. She has received a 2023 NEFA Newell Flather Award for Emerging Leadership in Public Art, a Next Level: Aerosol USA Ambassadorship with UAE Dubai, and was an Artadia Boston finalist. Rixy earned her BA in Studio Art at UMass Boston with a concentration in Sculpture.
“We are thrilled to host Rixy as our next Greenway muralist,” said Dr. Audrey N. Lopez, Director and Curator of Public Art at the Greenway Conservancy. “As Boston prepares for a transformational year in 2026—with monumental gatherings and increased international attention—Rixy’s artwork will stand at the heart of downtown as a vibrant welcome, a beacon of imagination and possible worlds, and as an invitation to reflect upon our shared histories and intertwined futures.”
“Rixy both inspired and impressed the Artist Selection Committee with a mural proposal that met the moment of 2026– reflecting themes that Americans are celebrating during the nation’s 250th, while also offering an expansive counterpoint to revolutionary narratives often saturated in traditional colonial imagery,” said Jasper Sanchez, Assistant Curator at Boston Public Art Triennial and member of the Dewey Square Artist Selection Panel. Sanchez continued: “With this mural, the artist builds upon her practice of empowering feminist figuration to present a vision of liberty that is unapologetically Woman, Black and/or Brown, and in true revolutionary spirit.”
“It is an exciting honor to present a mural with The Rose Kennedy Greenway that shines light on the beauty of resiliency,” said Rixy, commissioned artist for the 2026 Dewey Square Mural. “I hope the work will remind and inspire viewers to see themselves as larger than life, and our interconnectedness as revolutionary, spiritual, and beautiful.”
Rixy’s commission arrives at a time when many artists across the country are responding to the nation’s 250th anniversary, oftentimes through reimagining historical figures and moments positioned as key to the founding of democracy.
From Amy Sherald’s painting Trans Forming Liberty, 2024, a work central to the artist’s solo exhibition American Sublime, originally organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (now on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art), to Los Angeles-based artist Ektor Rivera’s recent reimagining of German-American artist Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851), contemporary artists are engaging with historical moments, symbols, and figures to expand these narratives in ways that offer and encourage new points of access, imagination, and critical reflection.
Rixy, who works primarily with aerosol-based paints for her large-scale murals, will be on-site painting the 70’ x 76’ Dewey Square mural wall by hand with an all-women painting team throughout the month of May.
Images of Rixy’s previous works and the artist’s headshot can be found here.
The Artist Selection Panel reviewed more than 100 applicants to select and commission mural design proposals from five individual artists and one artist team, who then developed and presented their proposals to the Selection Panel for review.
In addition to selecting Rixy as the 2026 Dewey Square Muralist, the Selection Panel also unanimously chose artist Ekua Holmes and her proposal “We Are Each Others’ Suns” to be commissioned for the 2027 Dewey Square Mural, a serendipitous outcome and testament to the generative collaboration and partnership between Embrace, Everyone250, the Artist Selection Panel, and The Greenway.
Ekua Holmes, (b. Roxbury, MA, she/her) is an award-winning mixed-media artist, designer, and illustrator of children’s literature. Based in Roxbury, Holmes observes her surroundings closely and continually chooses her community as both subject and muse. In her work, Holmes brings light to the universal power of hope, faith, and self-determination.
Recent commissions from Holmes include “You Belong Here,” a 10′ x 40′ mosaic mural commissioned by the Cambridge Arts Council for the new Tobin Montessori and Darby Vassall Upper School in Cambridge, MA (2025), and “Roxbury Sunflower Project: Color Me Beautiful” a 500 -sunflower installation, in Grove Hall, Boston, 2025. This work is the most recent iteration of her Roxbury Sunflower Project, launched through The Triennials’ Public Art Accelerator Fellowship, and which has since facilitated the planting of 10,000 sunflower seeds across her native Roxbury, MA, in front of the MFA Boston, and on The Greenway in downtown Boston
For her work in illustrating children’s literature, Holmes is the recipient of a Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King’s John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award, Robert Siebert and Horn Book awards for her illustrations in “Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement” by Carole Boston Weatherford, her first illustration project. In 2018, she won the coveted Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration for the book, “Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets.” In 2019 she won the 2019 Coretta Scott King Award again for her illustrations in “Stuff of Stars,” written by Marion Dane Bauer. Holmes received her BFA in Photography from MassArt in 1977.
Of Holmes’ mural proposal, entitled “We Are Each Other’s Suns”, Tessa Bachi Haas, Assistant Curator at ICA/Boston and member of the Artist Selection Panel, shared: “Holmes’ design focuses on personal and collective growth, cultivating life, and practices of tending to the earth and each other, all of which feel not only relevant but essential at this moment.”
“We are excited to host two hometown luminaries on the Dewey Square mural wall in successive years. Rixy and Holmes bring distinct yet equally compelling approaches to public art that speak to the richness of the city’s creative communities: Rixy’s vibrant, dynamic world-building invites viewers into layered visual narratives filled with movement, color, and imagination, while Holmes’ process-based practice foregrounds material and the act of making as a way to connect more deeply with one’s self and one’s community,” said Lopez.
“We especially look forward to the conversations, public programs, and community dialogues the artists’ murals will inspire. We see these as opportunities to explore how these artists’ voices and visions can shape, challenge, and celebrate the spaces we all gather in,” Lopez continued.
Rixy and Holmes are respectively the third and fourth women artists to be commissioned for the Dewey Square Mural, following Shinique Smith’s 2014 commission, Seven Moon Junction, in partnership with the MFA Boston, and Shara Hughes’ 2018 commission, Carving Out Fresh Options, in partnership with the deCordova Sculpture Park Museum.
All artists who were selected and participated as Mural Finalists –Brooke Stewart and Daniela Rivera, Destiny Palmer, Jasmine Chen, and Escif– will have their proposals showcased via a large-scale outdoor exhibition installed at Dewey Square Plaza from June 2026 to December 2026. In response to the mural theme, artists brought forward a remarkable range of innovative and deeply considered approaches—spanning bold visual storytelling, experimental approaches, and thoughtful reflections on place, history, and community. Each submission offered a distinct perspective, demonstrating not only artistic excellence but also a genuine engagement with the ideas at the heart of this project.
The Artist Selection Panel was inspired by the creativity, care, and vision evident in each proposal, and it was a privilege to review work from artists both near and far who took the time to participate in this first-ever open call. The Conservancy’s Public Art Team is excited to share these concepts with our community through this exhibition and to celebrate the breadth of ideas that helped shape this milestone initiative.
Complete List of 2026 Dewey Square Mural Finalists
Brooke Stewart (collaborative team with Daniela Rivera)
Boston-based interdisciplinary artist Brooke Stewart (b. Topsfield, MA) explores the intersection of art and sport through large-scale printmaking, painting, and installation. A lifelong athlete, she treats courts and playing surfaces as sacred public spaces, shaping memory and belonging. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at MFA Boston and Tokyo University of the Arts.
Daniela Rivera (collaborative team with Brooke Stewart)
Daniela Rivera (b. Santiago, Chile) is an artist and Professor at Wellesley College whose work examines displacement, identity, and belonging through immersive, materially rich environments. With a background spanning Chile and the U.S., Rivera’s practice centers storytelling, public engagement, and collaboration, using murals as social processes that invite dialogue between community, history, and place.
Destiny Palmer
Destiny Palmer (b. Boston, MA) is a Boston-based artist, educator, and muralist whose work explores color as memory, inheritance, and cultural language. Inspired by women in her family and the unfinished quilt of her grandmother, Palmer’s practice bridges science, history, and community storytelling, centering the unseen labor that holds cities together.
Ekua Holmes
Ekua Holmes is a Roxbury native, MassArt graduate, and celebrated mixed-media artist whose work centers children, family, and community life. Drawing from personal history and local landscapes, she builds richly textured narratives from found objects and ephemera, creating work that honors everyday beauty, resilience, and the power of self-determination.
Escif
Escif (b. Valencia, Spain) is a Valencia-based street artist active since the late 1990s whose minimalist murals use sharp lines and restrained color to question capitalism, environmental crisis, and urban life. His work has appeared at major museums and biennials worldwide, including Palais de Tokyo, Shanghai’s Power Station of Art, and Banksy’s Dismaland.
Jasmine Chen
Jasmine Chen (b. Beijing, China) is a Boston-based visual artist originally from Beijing whose work investigates memory, migration, and mixed ancestry. Her art is in the permanent collection of the Danforth Art Museum and has been exhibited throughout New England. She holds degrees from Harvard and Brandeis and has completed residencies across New England.
Rixy
Rixy (b. Roxbury, MA) is a Boston-based street artist whose work blends surrealism, intersectional feminism, and Latinx-Caribbean identity. Their murals celebrate Black and brown youth, queer communities, and diasporic storytelling through bold color and found materials. Recent commissions include the City of Boston and the Boston Triennial Public Art Accelerator.
Mural finalist images can be found here.
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 Massachusetts250, the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism, Meet Boston, and Holland America.
Project support for the Dewey Square Mural is generously provided by Meet Boston and The Lynch Foundation.
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.
Special thanks to our Artist Selection Panelists: 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. Additional thanks to our design collaborator, Chen Luo.
About The Greenway and the Greenway Conservancy (rosekennedygreenway.org)
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 (https://www.embraceboston.
Embrace is a nonprofit organization working to build a more equitable, inclusive, and connected city through art, culture, storytelling, and policy. Founded in 2017, Embrace activates public spaces, celebrates community, and drives systemic change toward a Boston where everyone feels seen, valued, and a true sense of belonging.
A founding partner of Everyone250, Boston’s campaign to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary through a lens of equity, justice, and belonging, Embrace creates platforms that amplify diverse voices, reimagine history, and inspire collective action. Through cultural programming, research, and creative collaboration, Embrace is fostering spaces of connection and care—shaping a future grounded in joy, justice, and shared humanity.
About Everyone250 (https://everyone250.org/)
Led by a coalition of over 100 partners in Boston’s arts and culture sector including co-chairs A Beautiful Resistance, Embrace Boston, MassArt, Mass Humanities and Mathmatik Athletics, Everyone250 is redefining what it means to belong in Boston. Through storytelling, cultural celebration, and honest reflection, we shine a light on the untold histories and unsung heroes who have shaped our city over the past 250 years—ensuring every voice is heard and every person is seen.
More than a campaign, Everyone250 is a living, breathing commitment to inclusivity, representation, and the power of collective impact. Join the Movement. Explore our mission, attend upcoming events, and help us Reveal More Boston.