New Faces in Public Art

Public art is an integral part of The Greenway, making the park a premier destination to see contemporary works by both local and national artists in downtown Boston. The people who make up our Public Art team work to curate pieces, manage their installations, and ensure that visitors experience thought-provoking art during their time in the park.

Our Public Art team recently welcomed two new people – Maggie Poost, Public Art and Ecology Fellow, and Adam Torres, Public Art Project Manager. We sat down with them to learn more about what brought them to The Greenway, what they’ve been working on, and what they look forward to in their new role.

Adam Torres, Public Art Project Manager

Adam is no stranger to the world of art – he was a music major in college. Before joining The Greenway, he held a position in college admissions, specifically for a dance and music department. In that role, he enjoyed the intersection of creativity and administrative tasks, including teaching master classes and coaching students on auditions. 

He is also a co-founder of a queer BIPOC artist collective that specializes in multimedia gallery installations. His work with the collective, both creatively and as their project manager, was his introduction to exhibition work. 

When looking for a new opportunity, Adam was interested in being someplace where his work would connect him with Boston and its communities. As a newcomer to the city, he was feeling disconnected from his new home, and he wanted to find a job that would help him get to know the city better. He also wanted this new role to continue fostering his commitment to sustainability and the arts, so when he found the Public Art Project Manager role at The Greenway, he realized it was a great fit.

So far, he’s been busy with wrapping up Public Art projects from 2023. The first project he worked on was the mini-exhibition in Dewey Square, Hip Hop Seen/Unseen, featuring photographs and flyers from the Massachusetts Hip Hop Archive. He also assisted on the event accompanying it, Sound In the City. Since then, he’s led his first installation (the community pavilion artwork Year of the Tiger by Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong), provided support for Little Amal’s walk through The Greenway, and oversaw the deinstallation of Seeds of Wisdom (part of the Roxbury Sunflower Project).

Now, Adam is busily working on projects for 2024 and 2025, and he’s most excited about being involved with upcoming projects in their earliest stages. He looks forward to supporting artists who want to bring their work to The Greenway by working with our Director of Public Art in a co-curiturial fashion, ultimately having an impact on what visitors experience when they come to The Greenway.

Maggie Poost, Public Art and Ecology Fellow

Maggie is our new Public Art and Ecology Fellow. A recent college graduate, they studied anthropology and minored in theatre, environmental studies, and creative writing. 

During their studies, they enjoyed exploring ideas related to what it means to be human and be in community. In their last year of school, they joined a media lab to learn more about art and storytelling. Through their involvement, they realized that in their future work, they wanted to focus on how art can be an outlet for climate advocacy, providing a way to engage with climate work that is different from but still adjacent to the hard sciences.

Maggie applied for this fellowship through their school, which provides six recent graduates funding to work with environmental organizations. During the pandemic, they felt disconnected from school and their community, and in a post-pandemic landscape, they knew they wanted to do work that had physicality and involved working with their hands. They also wanted to be somewhere where they could fully delve into the ecosystem of an organization – so being able to stay in a place for two years appealed to them.

When looking for a place to spend the two years, they looked for someplace where they would be able to explore the connection between art and environmentalism. The arts are where they feel most comfortable, and being able to do creative thinking around this intersection interested them. 

The Greenway drew them in for a few reasons. First, they were interested in its history of turning what used to be a highway into a green space. They also like the questions being asked by the Public Art team, specifically around how to have public greenspace in the midst of climate reckoning and how to create more sustainable art practices. They approached our public art team, and they were happy to have them!

So far, Maggie has delved into wrapping up 2023 projects, such as Seeds of Wisdom. They worked on the closing Garden Party which allowed them to see how the project worked with other parks to bring sunflowers to different points across the city. They are also involved with the closing reception for Mithsuca Berry’s Where the Land and Our Bodies Intersect, which will be a “spooky dance party” with art vendors.

As they look forward to their time during this fellowship, they’re particularly excited to work as a bridge between the Horticulture and Public Art departments. They want to continue to figure out how these two realms intersect, and how our public art program can stay sustainability-minded through upcoming projects.

As we wrap up 2023 projects and head into 2024 projects, keep an eye out for new pieces in the park. They’re being coordinated by Maggie and Adam!