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Patricia Thaxton, “Taking the Bridge," mixed media collage, 2021. |
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POSTPONED: New Exhibition Shows How
Harvard Square Mural Was Created
'Patricia Thaxton: The Beauty of Everyday Living'
at Cambridge Arts’ Gallery 344, Oct. 24 to Feb 28
UPDATE: The exhibition celebration scheduled for tonight, Oct. 24, has been postponed due to illness. A new date for the reception will be announced soon.
In June 2021, a monumental (printed) mural debuted in Cambridge's Harvard Square as part of the City of Cambridge's renovation of the landmark Harvard Square Kiosk, which had been the longtime home of Out of Town News.
Designed by artist Patricia Thaxton of Stoughton, “The Beauty of Everyday Living,” was printed on vinyl scrim to surround the worksite during construction. It highlights Harvard Square, Cambridge community festivals, Black Lives Matter protests, and her own patterns.
See how Thaxton created the printed mural in the exhibition “Patricia Thaxton: The Beauty of Everyday Living” which will be on view at Cambridge Arts’ Gallery 344, 344 Broadway, Cambridge, from Oct. 24, 2022, to Feb. 28, 2023. At the gallery, view Thaxton’s original collages for the mural, which was commissioned by the City of Cambridge, and a scrim panel similar to the panels at the construction site.
Admission to the gallery and events are free.
To prevent the spread of covid as cases are again rising locally, masking is strongly encouraged while indoors.
"Everyday life is about growth, from subtle changes to major life shifts. Change is necessary, but with it come challenges.” Thaxton says. “The mural is about joy, harmony, beauty, nature, and gratitude in spite of life's challenges. In 2020, I worked through the pandemic, protest for equality, social distancing, material shortage and supply chain issues. This affected my thematic and visual choices. When the mural was installed in June 2021, everyone was waking from isolation. My hope was to bring joy and harmony to the Harvard Square community during a time of hardship."
Thaxton’s collages incorporate cut paper, fabric, pastels, pencil, watercolor, and acrylic paint. She adopted bolder colors, larger figures, and bigger shapes than usual to make her compositions stand out in Harvard Square. The collages were then digitally scanned in a way to ensure texture and shadow were visible when the handmade artworks were enlarged and printed as vinyl panels.
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Explore Public Art In Cambridge Via New Online Map
Explore public art in Cambridge with our new, online Public Art Map. Find more than 280 contemporary artworks in every neighborhood of the city by location, artist, theme or media via your computer or your phone: cambridgema.gov/publicartmap.
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Cambridge Arts is the River Festival, Open Studios, Gallery 344, Sidewalk Poetry, Summer In The City, Community Supported Art, grants to artists, street performers, more than 280 works of contemporary public art in every neighborhood of the city, and a conservation program to preserve them for the future.
We are the Cambridge Arts Council, a City agency that funds, promotes, and presents high-quality, community based arts programs for the benefit of artists, residents, and visitors in Cambridge. Active since 1974, Cambridge Arts is one of the most dynamic local arts agencies in the country. Cambridge Arts exists to ensure that the arts remain vital for people living, working and visiting Cambridge.
Cambridge Arts is located on the Indigenous homelands of the Massachusett, Nipmuc, Pawtucket, and Wampanoag peoples. We are guests on this land. We honor the people who were here before colonization, are here now, and will be here in the future. In our work as a cultural organization, we are committed to doing whatever we can to dismantle harmful structures built from violent colonialism. Our work seeks to expand the visibility of and celebrate the histories, cultures, and stories of indigenous peoples, who are of this place.
Cambridge Arts embraces a vision that welcomes and supports everyone. Believing that a multiplicity of perspectives is essential to a strong society, we are committed, both in our policies and practices, to building participation in and awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the arts and all cultures. In our ongoing work to address cultural and historical inequities, we strive to be a community anchor that reflects the entire Cambridge community and expands access, opportunities, and inclusion in every form of creative expression. We value diverse voices and people of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, abilities, gender identities, sexual orientations, socioeconomic situations, religions, citizenship statuses, and family configurations.
The City of Cambridge does not discriminate on the basis of disability. We will provide auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternate formats, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures to persons with disabilities upon request.
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