Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in performance art , sculpture , and installation art . Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including Shoot (1971), where he arranged for a friend to shoot him in the arm with a small-caliber rifle. A prolific artist, Burden created many well-known installations, public artworks, and sculptures before his death in 2015.
144-683: Burden was born in Boston in 1946 to Robert Burden, an engineer, and Rhoda Burden, a biologist. He grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts , France and Italy. At the age of 12, Burden had emergency surgery, performed without anesthesia, on his left foot after he was severely injured in a motor-scooter crash on the island of Elba . During the long convalescence that followed, he became deeply interested in visual art , particularly photography. He studied for his B.A. in visual arts, physics and architecture at Pomona College in 1965–1969 and received his MFA at
288-590: A Volkswagen Beetle and had nails hammered into both of his hands, as if he were being crucified on the car. The car was pushed out of the garage and the engine revved for two minutes before being pushed back into the garage. Later that year, Burden performed his piece White Light/White Heat at the Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York City. For this work of experiment performance and self-inflicting danger, Burden spent twenty-two days lying on
432-576: A grand opening story in Time . It opened in fall 1967 in a small space at 237 East Ontario Street that had for a time served as the corporate offices of Playboy Enterprises . Its first director was Jan van der Marck . In 1970, he invited Wolf Vostell to make the Concrete Traffic sculpture in Chicago. Initially, the museum was conceived primarily as a space for temporary exhibitions, in
576-493: A $ 16 million renovation by architects Johnston Marklee, which redesigned 12,000 square feet (1,100 m ) within the existing footprint of the original Joseph Paul Kleihues design. In 2017, the MCA commissioned architects Johnston Marklee to redesign select public spaces of the museum to create three major offerings: Marisol, the ground-floor destination restaurant with an immersive art environment by international artist Chris Ofili;
720-402: A 296-seat multi-use theater with a proscenium -layout stage. The seats are laid out in 14 rows with two side aisles . The stage is 52 by 34 feet (16 m × 10 m) and elevated 36 inches (0.91 m) above the floor level of the first row of seats. The house has a 12 degree incline. The stage has three curtains and four catwalks. For its 50th anniversary in 2017, the museum unveiled
864-569: A 330-mile (530 km) 5-day trip from Fair Isle , near Shetland. The project was commissioned by the company Locus+ at a cost of £150,000, and was funded with a significant grant from Arts Council England , being designed and constructed with the help of the Marine Engineering Department of the University of Southampton . It is said to be controlled via onboard computers and a GPS system; however, in case of emergency
1008-502: A 5 ft × 8 ft (1.5 m × 2.4 m) slanted sheet of glass near a running wall clock. Burden planned to remain in that position until a museum employee prioritized his well-being over the artistic integrity of the piece. After 40 hours, the museum staff consulted physicians. 5 hours and 10 minutes after that, museum employee Dennis O'Shea placed a pitcher of water within Burden's reach, at which point Burden rose, smashed
1152-571: A campus landmark. Burden's last completed project – a working dirigible that flies in perfect circles called Ode to Santos Dumont after the pioneering Brazilian aviator – was unveiled at a private Gagosian Gallery event outside of Los Angeles shortly before his death and later installed as a tribute at LACMA . Also, the New Museum decided to have Twin Quasi-Legal Skyscrapers (2013), two 36-foot-tall towers created for
1296-490: A cannon barrage for two hours, but their shot could not reach the colonists' cannons at such a height. The British gave up, boarded their ships, and sailed away. This has become known as " Evacuation Day ", which Boston still celebrates each year on March 17. After this, Washington was so impressed that he made Rufus Putnam his chief engineer. After the Revolution, Boston's long seafaring tradition helped make it one of
1440-882: A combination of the two. The museum has hosted several notable debut exhibitions, including Frida Kahlo 's first U.S. exhibition and Jeff Koons ' first solo museum exhibition. Koons later presented an exhibit at the museum that broke the museum's attendance record. The current record for the most attended exhibition is the 2017 exhibition of Takashi Murakami 's work. The museum's collection, which includes Jasper Johns , Andy Warhol , Cindy Sherman , Kara Walker , and Alexander Calder , contains historical samples of 1940s–1970s late surrealism , pop art , minimalism , and conceptual art ; notable holdings also include 1980s postmodernism , as well as contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and related media. It also presents dance, theater, music, and multidisciplinary arts. The current location at 220 East Chicago Avenue
1584-423: A deal that Gagosian Gallery had struck to buy $ 3 million in gold bricks for Burden's work One Ton, One Kilo was frozen when it turned out that the bricks had been acquired from a Houston-based company owned by financier Allen Stanford , who was later charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and sentenced to 110 years in prison for cheating investors out of more than $ 7 billion over 20 years in one of
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#17328024489911728-425: A distance of about sixteen feet (5 m) with a .22 rifle. Other performances from the 1970s included Deadman (1972), in which Burden lay on the ground covered with a canvas sheet and a set of road flares until bystanders assumed he was dead and called emergency services (leading to his arrest); Match Piece (1972) (also known as Match ), in which Burden launched lit matches at a naked woman lying between him and
1872-464: A facsimile of an Italian 10,000 Lira note, possibly the first fine art print that (like paper money) is printed on both sides of the paper; The Speed of Light Machine (1983), in which he reconstructed a scientific experiment with which to "see" the speed of light; and the installation C.B.T.V. (1977), a reconstruction of the first ever made Mechanical television . Burden was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fine Arts in 1978. In 1978, he became
2016-497: A fantasy about the twenty-fifth century – a time when he imagines the world will have returned to a system of feudal states. The room-filling miniature reconstruction of two such city-states, poised for war, incorporates 5,000 war toys from the United States, Japan, and Europe – on a 1,100-square-foot (100 m), 20-short-ton (18 t) sand base surrounded by a "jungle" made of houseplants. The gallery-sized installation All
2160-480: A large ditch; Velvet Water (1974), in which he spent five minutes attempting to breathe water as a live audience watched; Do You Believe in Television (1976), in which he sent an audience to the third floor of a building — where television monitors showed them the ground floor — and then lit a fire on the ground floor (sources differ as to whether the monitors showed the fire, forcing the audience to realize that
2304-500: A loaded gun, but authorities were unable to substantiate this. In 1979, Burden first exhibited his notable Big Wheel exhibition at Rosamund Felsen Gallery . It was later exhibited in 2009 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles . In 1980, he produced The Atomic Alphabet – a giant, poster-sized hand-colored lithograph – and performed the text dressed in leather and punctuating each letter with an angry stomp. Twenty editions of
2448-425: A locker for five days. His 1973 work 747 involved the artist firing several pistol shots directly at a Boeing 747 passenger jet plane while it took off from Los Angeles International Airport. The piece had a single witness, photographer Terry McDonnell, who filmed the act. His best-known work from that time is perhaps the 1971 performance piece Shoot , in which he was shot in his left arm by an assistant from
2592-513: A million residents, and the most densely populated state capital. Some 1.2 million persons may be within Boston's boundaries during work hours, and as many as 2 million during special events. This fluctuation of people is caused by hundreds of thousands of suburban residents who travel to the city for work, education, health care, and special events. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago
2736-577: A more fortress-like exterior than the museum's earlier home, Kamin viewed the architectural attempt as a fumbled work. However, he considered the interior to be serene and contemplative in a manner that complements the contemporary art and compact and organized in a manner that is an improvement on the more traditional mazelike museums. Comparing the building to the Sullivan Center and the Art Institute of Chicago Building , Kamin describes
2880-475: A pair of bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon , killing three people and injuring roughly 264. The subsequent search for the bombers led to a lock-down of Boston and surrounding municipalities. The region showed solidarity during this time as symbolized by the slogan Boston Strong . In 2016, Boston briefly shouldered a bid as the U.S. applicant for the 2024 Summer Olympics . The bid
3024-610: A population of 4.9 million as of 2023, making it the largest in New England and the eleventh-largest in the country . Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers. The city was named after Boston, Lincolnshire , England. During the American Revolution , Boston was home to several events that proved central to the revolution and subsequent Revolutionary War , including
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#17328024489913168-477: A professor at University of California, Los Angeles , a position from which he resigned in 2005 due to a controversy over the university's alleged mishandling of a student's classroom performance piece that echoed one of Burden's own performance pieces. Burden cited the performance in his letter of resignation, saying that the student should have been suspended during the investigation into whether school safety rules had been violated. The performance allegedly involved
3312-565: A project to improve the historic West End neighborhood. Extensive demolition was met with strong public opposition, and thousands of families were displaced. The BRA continued implementing eminent domain projects, including the clearance of the vibrant Scollay Square area for construction of the modernist style Government Center . In 1965, the Columbia Point Health Center opened in the Dorchester neighborhood,
3456-414: A propeller powered by a rubber band, and when each was completed, at a rate of one every 2 minutes, the machine launched it to fly up and circle around the gallery. Unfortunately, the machine was non-functional for at least two months of the installation, leading World Sculpture News to question the intent of the piece and remark that "the work illustrated that robots, in fact, don't rule everything, and for
3600-430: A restaurant in the rear of the building. Two galleries for temporary exhibitions flank the atrium. The stairwell in the northwest corner is often cited as the buildings most interesting and dynamic artistic feature. The elevated views of Lake Michigan are considered to be a rewarding feature of the building. The building's 56-foot (17.1 m) glass facade sits atop 16 feet (4.9 m) of Indiana limestone. The building
3744-608: A school of fish swimming through the ocean of the gallery space. In 1992, he exhibited his Fist of Light during the Whitney Biennial exhibition in New York. It consisted of a sealed kitchen-sized metal box with hundreds of metal halide lamps burning inside. It required an industrial air conditioner to cool the room. Hell Gate (1998), is a 28-foot-long (8.5 m) scale model, in Erector and Meccano pieces and wood, of
3888-570: A set of two televisions in a room covered with butcher paper (1972); B.C. Mexico (1973), in which he kayaked to a desolate beach in Baja Mexico where he lived for 11 days with no food and only water; Fire Roll (1973), in which he set a pair of pants on fire and then rolled on them to extinguish them; Prelude to 220, or 110 , in which he had himself bolted to a concrete floor by copper bands, next to two buckets of water that also contained live 110-volt wires; Honest Labor (1979), in which he dug
4032-499: A small meteorite. Porsche With Meteorite (2013) balances perfectly, with the heavier car much closer to the vertical support. Light of Reason was commissioned by Brandeis University in 2014 and stands outside the Rose Art Museum on campus. The sculpture consists of three rows of 24 Victorian lamp posts which point away from the museum's entrance. The sculpture serves as a gateway and outdoor event space, and has become
4176-460: A social engagement space called the Commons on the second floor with an installation by Pedro y Juana; and a new third floor with classrooms and a flexible meeting space that puts learning at the very center of the museum. This major $ 16-million renovation converted 12,000 square feet (1,100 m ) of interior space and coincided with the MCA's 50th anniversary. Complaining that the structure has
4320-478: A state of defence, that I could promise myself little success in attacking them under all the disadvantages I had to encounter. William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe , in a letter to William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth , about the British army's decision to leave Boston, dated March 21, 1776. Many crucial events of the American Revolution occurred in or near Boston. The then-town's mob presence, along with
4464-424: A triangular platform in the corner of the gallery. He was out of sight from all viewers and he could not see them either. According to Burden, he did not eat, talk, or come down the entire time. Several of Burden's other performance pieces were considered controversial at the time: another "danger piece" was Doomed (1975), in which Burden lay motionless in a gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago under
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4608-401: A violent tornado , the city itself has experienced many tornado warnings . Damaging storms are more common to areas north, west, and northwest of the city. See or edit raw graph data . In 2020, Boston was estimated to have 691,531 residents living in 266,724 households —a 12% population increase over 2010. The city is the third-most densely populated large U.S. city of over half
4752-505: Is 2 °F (−17 °C) on December 30, 1917, while the record warm daily minimum is 83 °F (28 °C) on both August 2, 1975 and July 21, 2019. Boston averages 43.6 in (1,110 mm) of precipitation a year, with 49.2 in (125 cm) of snowfall per season. Most snowfall occurs from mid-November through early April, and snow is rare in May and October. There is also high year-to-year variability in snowfall; for instance,
4896-434: Is 34,000 square feet (3,200 m ), includes a sculptural installation by Sol LeWitt and sculptures by George Rickey and Jane Highstein. The floor plan of both the building and the sculpture garden is a square, on which the proportions of the building is based. The building's main entrance, which is accessed by scaling 32 steps, uses both symmetry and transparency as themes for its large central glass walls that compose
5040-508: Is July, with a mean temperature of 74.1 °F (23.4 °C). The coldest month is January, with a mean temperature of 29.9 °F (−1.2 °C). Periods exceeding 90 °F (32 °C) in summer and below freezing in winter are not uncommon but tend to be fairly short, with about 13 and 25 days per year seeing each, respectively. Sub- 0 °F (−18 °C) readings usually occur every 3 to 5 years. The most recent sub- 0 °F (−18 °C) reading occurred on February 4, 2023, when
5184-469: Is Not Even, Space is Not Empty was the first series of stage performances and a gallery exhibition presented at the MCA. The Japanese-born choreographers and dance artists performed and exhibited from June – November 2011. In 2014, the MCA was the only US venue to mount the David Bowie Is... exhibition, which broke previous attendance records for the museum. To date, the most attended exhibition
5328-565: Is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in the Near North Side of Chicago , Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues. The museum's collection is composed of thousands of objects of Post-World War II visual art. The museum is run gallery-style, with individually curated exhibitions throughout the year. Each exhibition may be composed of temporary loans, pieces from their permanent collection, or
5472-552: Is a sequence about Burden. Burden was married to multi-media artist Nancy Rubins . He lived and worked in Los Angeles, California. His studio was located in Topanga Canyon . From 1967 to 1976, Burden was married to Barbara Burden, who documented and participated in several of his early artworks. Burden died on May 10, 2015, 18 months after having been diagnosed with melanoma . He was 69. Boston Boston
5616-547: Is an intellectual, technological, and political center. However, it has lost some important regional institutions, including the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial , which was acquired by Charlotte -based Bank of America in 2004. Boston-based department stores Jordan Marsh and Filene's have both merged into the New York City –based Macy's . The 1993 acquisition of The Boston Globe by The New York Times
5760-445: Is closed Mondays and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays through Sundays, with extended hours of operation on Tuesdays until 9 p.m. While the museum has no mandatory admission charge, suggested admission is $ 15 for adults and $ 8 for students, teachers and seniors. Admission is free for MCA members, members of the military and all youth, 18 and under. It currently provides free admission to Illinois residents every Tuesday. During
5904-588: Is in Roxbury . Due north of the center we find the South End. This is not to be confused with South Boston which lies directly east from the South End. North of South Boston is East Boston and southwest of East Boston is the North End Unknown, A local colloquialism Boston has an area of 89.63 sq mi (232.1 km ). Of this area, 48.4 sq mi (125.4 km ), or 54%, of it
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6048-565: Is in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area . Josef Paul Kleihues designed the current building after the museum conducted a 12-month search, reviewing more than 200 nominations. The museum was initially located at 237 East Ontario Street, which was originally designed as a bakery. The current building is known for its signature staircase leading to an elevated ground floor, which has an atrium ,
6192-440: Is known for its hand-cast aluminum panels adjoined to the facade with stainless steel buttons. The building has two two-story gallery spaces and a smaller one-story gallery space on the second floor. The third floor has a gallery and exhibition space in its northwest section, and the fourth floor has two large galleries, an exhibition space on the west side of the building, and a gallery in the southwest section. The museum has
6336-410: Is land and 41.2 sq mi (106.7 km ), or 46%, of it is water. The city's elevation, as measured at Logan International Airport , is 19 ft (5.8 m) above sea level . The highest point in Boston is Bellevue Hill at 330 ft (100 m) above sea level, and the lowest point is at sea level. The city is adjacent to Boston Harbor , an arm of Massachusetts Bay , and by extension,
6480-550: Is the 2017 Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg exhibit, which broke the David Bowie Is... record set in 2014 with over 193,000 attendees. Following David Bowie Is... , the MCA debuted the critically acclaimed exhibition Kerry James Marshall : Mastry in 2016. Mastry later traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art . In 2017,
6624-804: Is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States . The city serves as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the Northeastern United States . It has an area of 48.4 sq mi (125 km ) and a population of 675,647 as of the 2020 census , making it the third-largest city in the Northeast after New York City and Philadelphia . The larger Greater Boston metropolitan statistical area has
6768-585: The Boston Garden opening in 1928. Logan International Airport opened on September 8, 1923. Boston went into decline by the early to mid-20th century, as factories became old and obsolete and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere. Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) established in 1957. In 1958, BRA initiated
6912-724: The Boston Massacre (1770), the Boston Tea Party (1773), Paul Revere's Midnight Ride (1775), the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775), and the Siege of Boston (1775–1776). Following American independence from Great Britain , the city continued to play an important role as a port, manufacturing hub, and center for education and culture. The city also expanded significantly beyond the original peninsula by filling in land and annexing neighboring towns. Boston's many firsts include
7056-625: The Boston Public Library , Trinity Church, single-family homes and wooden/brick multi-family row houses. The South End Historic District is the largest surviving contiguous Victorian-era neighborhood in the US. The geography of downtown and South Boston was particularly affected by the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (which ran from 1991 to 2007, and was known unofficially as the " Big Dig "). That project removed
7200-746: The Hammer Museum , Los Angeles. Co-organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Wexner Center for the Arts , the MCA presented Luc Tuymans from October 2010 – January 2011. Susan Philipsz : We Shall Be All was presented at the MCA February – June 2011. The Turner Prize -winning artist's sound exhibition featured protest songs and drew from Chicago's labor history. The exhibition Eiko & Koma : Time
7344-768: The LACMA and the Museum of Contemporary Art , Los Angeles; the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art , New York; the Tate Gallery, London; the Middelheimmuseum , Antwerp, Belgium; the Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporanea, Brazil; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; and the Museum of Contemporary Art , Chicago, among others. Burden was represented by Gagosian Gallery from 1991 until his death. In 2009,
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#17328024489917488-617: The Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig , Vienna (2002). In 1999 Burden exhibited at the 48th Venice Biennale and the Tate Gallery in London. In the summer of 2008, Burden's 65-foot-tall (20 m) skyscraper made of one million erector set parts, titled What My Dad Gave Me , stood in front of Rockefeller Center , New York City. Burden's work is featured in prominent museum collections such as
7632-537: The North End , and the Seaport . Boston is sometimes called a "city of neighborhoods" because of the profusion of diverse subsections. The city government's Office of Neighborhood Services has officially designated 23 neighborhoods: More than two-thirds of inner Boston's modern land area did not exist when the city was founded. Instead, it was created via the gradual filling in of the surrounding tidal areas over
7776-652: The South End , the West End , the Financial District , and Chinatown . After the Great Boston fire of 1872 , workers used building rubble as landfill along the downtown waterfront. During the mid-to-late 19th century, workers filled almost 600 acres (240 ha) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of Boston Common with gravel brought by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. The city annexed
7920-525: The University of California, Irvine —where his teachers included Robert Irwin —from 1969 to 1971. Burden began to work in performance art in the early 1970s. He made a series of controversial performances in which the idea of personal danger as artistic expression was central. His first significant performance work, Five Day Locker Piece (1971), was created for his master's thesis at the University of California, Irvine, and involved his being locked in
8064-412: The 1970s, the city's economy had begun to recover after 30 years of economic downturn. A large number of high-rises were constructed in the Financial District and in Boston's Back Bay during this period. This boom continued into the mid-1980s and resumed after a few pauses. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital , Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center , and Brigham and Women's Hospital lead
8208-457: The 19th century, Boston's core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants with their residence yielding lasting cultural change. Italians became the largest inhabitants of the North End , Irish dominated South Boston and Charlestown , and Russian Jews lived in the West End . Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community, and
8352-437: The 2008 fiscal year, the MCA celebrated its 40th anniversary, which inspired gifts of works by artists such as Dan Flavin , Alfredo Jaar , and Thomas Ruff . Additionally, the museum expanded its collection by acquiring the work of some of the artists it presented during its anniversary celebration such as Carlos Amorales , Tony Oursler , and Adam Pendleton. In 2022, collector and entrepreneur Dimitris Daskalopoulos gifted to
8496-643: The 20th century: Horticultural Hall , the Tennis and Racquet Club , Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , Fenway Studios , Jordan Hall , and the Boston Opera House . The Longfellow Bridge , built in 1906, was mentioned by Robert McCloskey in Make Way for Ducklings , describing its "salt and pepper shakers" feature. Fenway Park , home of the Boston Red Sox , opened in 1912, with
8640-598: The Atlantic Ocean. Boston is surrounded by the Greater Boston metropolitan region. It is bordered to the east by the town of Winthrop and the Boston Harbor Islands , to the northeast by the cities of Revere , Chelsea and Everett , to the north by the cities of Somerville and Cambridge , to the northwest by Watertown , to the west by the city of Newton and town of Brookline , to
8784-685: The Bullet that Kills You – It's the Hole (for Chris Burden)". Burden was also mentioned in the Jeff Lindsay book Dexter by Design , and in Norman Mailer 's book The Faith of Graffiti . The poem "Doomed (1975)" by David Hernandez in his 2011 collection Hoodwinked describes the Burden installation of the same name in Chicago . In poet Jason Schneiderman 's 2020 collection Hold Me Tight there
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#17328024489918928-577: The English town ultimately derives from its patron saint, St. Botolph , in whose church John Cotton served as the rector until his emigration with Johnson. In early sources, Lincolnshire's Boston was known as "St. Botolph's town", later contracted to "Boston". Before this renaming, the settlement on the peninsula had been known as "Shawmut" by William Blaxton and "Tremontaine" by the Puritan settlers he had invited. Prior to European colonization ,
9072-499: The German kunsthalle model. However, in 1974, the museum began acquiring a permanent collection of contemporary art objects created after 1945. The MCA expanded into adjacent buildings to increase gallery space; and in 1977, following a fundraising drive for its 10th anniversary, a three-story neighboring townhouse was purchased, renovated, and connected to the museum. In 1978, Gordon Matta-Clark executed his final major project in
9216-512: The Irish have played a major role in Boston politics since the early 20th century; prominent figures include the Kennedys , Tip O'Neill , and John F. Fitzgerald . Between 1631 and 1890, the city tripled its area through land reclamation by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of
9360-579: The John Hancock Tower is the old John Hancock Building with its prominent illuminated beacon , the color of which forecasts the weather. Downtown and its immediate surroundings (including the Financial District, Government Center, and South Boston ) consist largely of low-rise masonry buildings – often federal style and Greek revival – interspersed with modern high-rises. Back Bay includes many prominent landmarks, such as
9504-916: The MCA Chicago 100 works from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection. The Museum acquired joint ownership of the pieces with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum . The board of trustees is composed of 6 officers, 16 life trustees, and more than 46 trustees. The current board chair is Cari B. Sacks. The museum has a director, who oversees the MCA's staff of about 100. The museum operates with three programming departments: Curatorial, Performance, and Learning and Public Programs. The curatorial staff consists of James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator René Morales, Manilow Senior Curator Jamillah James , Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator Carla Acevedo Yates, Curator of Performance Tara Aisha Willis, Pamela Alper Associate Curator Bana Kattan, and Assistant Curator Jadine Collingwood. The museum
9648-402: The MCA curated a show by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami which set attendance records, and in 2019, the museum launched a mid-career retrospective for the work of the American designer Virgil Abloh , a sometime collaborator of Murakami's. In 2020, the MCA opened Duro Olowu:Seeing Chicago , a curated exhibition by Duro Olowu of over 350 artworks from Chicago which marked the first time
9792-409: The MCA include: In 2006, the MCA was the only American museum to host Bruce Mau 's Massive Change exhibit, which concerned the social, economic, and political effects of design. Additional 2006 exhibitions featured photographers Catherine Opie and Wolfgang Tillmans as well as Chicago-based cartoonist Chris Ware . The 2008 Koons retrospective broke the attendance record with 86,584 visitors for
9936-459: The MCA offers a Tuesday evening series, In Progress , that explores the creative process, in addition to a Friday evening series led by local artists in the museum's public engagement space, the Commons. The MCA Stage has featured local, national, and international theater, dance, music, multimedia, and film performances. It is known as the "most active interdisciplinary arts presenter in Chicago" and partners with local community organizations for
10080-413: The May 31 – show of September 21, 2008. This was the culminating exhibit of the 2008 fiscal year , which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the museum. In 2009, the MCA presented Jeremy Deller 's exhibition It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq . The exhibition was organized by the New Museum , and it was a new commission by the New Museum, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and
10224-588: The Renew Boston Whole Building Incentive which reduces the cost of living in buildings that are deemed energy efficient. Under the Köppen climate classification , Boston has either a hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa ) under the 0 °C (32.0 °F) isotherm or a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa ) under the −3 °C (26.6 °F) isotherm. Summers are warm to hot and humid, while winters are cold and stormy, with occasional periods of heavy snow. Spring and fall are usually cool and mild, with varying conditions dependent on wind direction and
10368-469: The Submarines of the United States of America (1987) consists of 625 identical, small, handmade, painted-cardboard models that represent the entire United States submarine fleet dating from the late 1890s, when submarines entered the navy's arsenal, to the late 1980s. He suspended the cardboard models on monofilaments from the ceiling, placing them at various heights so that as a group they appear to be
10512-498: The United States' first public park ( Boston Common , 1634), the first public school ( Boston Latin School , 1635), and the first subway system ( Tremont Street subway , 1897). Boston has emerged as a global leader in higher education and research and the largest biotechnology hub in the world. The city is also a national leader in scientific research, law, medicine, engineering, and business. With nearly 5,000 startup companies,
10656-471: The Western Hemisphere. The first European to live in what would become Boston was a Cambridge -educated Anglican cleric named William Blaxton . He was the person most directly responsible for the foundation of Boston by Puritan colonists in 1630. This occurred after Blaxton invited one of their leaders, Isaac Johnson , to cross Back Bay from the failing colony of Charlestown and share
10800-412: The ability to work closely with the staff of the aspiring museum. In 1996, the MCA opened its current museum at 220 East Chicago Avenue, which was the site of a former National Guard Armory between Lake Michigan and Michigan Avenue from 1907 until it was demolished in 1993 to make way for the MCA. The four-story 220,000-square-foot (20,000 m ) building designed by Josef Paul Kleihues , which
10944-615: The act as an attempt to force them to accept the taxes established by the Townshend Acts . The act prompted the Boston Tea Party , where a group of angered Bostonians threw an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company into Boston Harbor . The Boston Tea Party was a key event leading up to the revolution, as the British government responded furiously with the Coercive Acts , demanding compensation for
11088-535: The adjacent towns of South Boston (1804), East Boston (1836), Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (including present-day Mattapan and a portion of South Boston ) (1870), Brighton (including present-day Allston ) (1874), West Roxbury (including present-day Jamaica Plain and Roslindale ) (1874), Charlestown (1874), and Hyde Park (1912). Other proposals were unsuccessful for the annexation of Brookline , Cambridge, and Chelsea . Many architecturally significant buildings were built during these early years of
11232-508: The angry colonists. This did not sit well with the colonists, however. In 1770, during the Boston Massacre , British troops shot into a crowd that had started to violently harass them. The colonists compelled the British to withdraw their troops. The event was widely publicized and fueled a revolutionary movement in America. In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act . Many of the colonists saw
11376-426: The area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing , which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s. Boston has also experienced gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century, with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s when the city's rent control regime was struck down by statewide ballot proposition . Boston
11520-605: The centuries. This was accomplished using earth from the leveling or lowering of Boston's three original hills (the "Trimountain", after which Tremont Street is named), as well as with gravel brought by train from Needham to fill the Back Bay . Christian Science Center , Copley Square , Newbury Street , and New England's two tallest buildings: the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center . Near
11664-460: The city government. A climate action plan from 2019 anticipates 2 ft (1 m) to more than 7 ft (2 m) of sea-level rise in Boston by the end of the 21st century. Many older buildings in certain areas of Boston are supported by wooden piles driven into the area's fill; these piles remain sound if submerged in water, but are subject to dry rot if exposed to air for long periods. Groundwater levels have been dropping in many areas of
11808-403: The city is considered a global pioneer in innovation and entrepreneurship , and more recently in artificial intelligence . Boston's economy also includes finance , professional and business services, information technology , and government activities. Boston households provide the highest average rate of philanthropy in the nation, and the city's businesses and institutions rank among
11952-464: The city often receives sea breezes , especially in the late spring, when water temperatures are still quite cold and temperatures at the coast can be more than 20 °F (11 °C) colder than a few miles inland, sometimes dropping by that amount near midday. Thunderstorms typically occur from May to September; occasionally, they can become severe, with large hail , damaging winds, and heavy downpours. Although downtown Boston has never been struck by
12096-474: The city to the lake is part of a transcendent space that benefits from the sunlight that enters through the high glass walls. The building is said to be designed to separate the art from other distracting services and functions of the venue. Kamin was also pleased with the separate entrances on the main floor for the museum store and accessibility entrances. MCA’s mission statement describes itself as “an innovative and compelling center of contemporary art where
12240-443: The city's economy, and the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. The small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads furthered the region's industry and commerce. During this period, Boston flourished culturally as well. It
12384-414: The city, due in part to an increase in the amount of rainwater discharged directly into sewers rather than absorbed by the ground. The Boston Groundwater Trust coordinates monitoring groundwater levels throughout the city via a network of public and private monitoring wells. The city developed a climate action plan covering carbon reduction in buildings, transportation, and energy use. The first such plan
12528-499: The co-presentations of performing arts. Notable MCA Stage appearances include performances by Mikhail Baryshnikov , eighth blackbird , Peter Brook , Marie Chouinard , Merce Cunningham , Philip Glass , Martha Graham , Akram Khan , Taylor Mac , and Twyla Tharp . In September 2022, the MCA Stage hosted the first annual Chicago Performs , a two-day festival of experimental dance, music, and theater that included admission to
12672-594: The colonists' growing lack of faith in either Britain or its Parliament , fostered a revolutionary spirit there. When the British parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, a Boston mob ravaged the homes of Andrew Oliver , the official tasked with enforcing the Act, and Thomas Hutchinson , then the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. The British sent two regiments to Boston in 1768 in an attempt to quell
12816-474: The commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, led the British army in the siege. On June 17, the British captured Charlestown (now part of Boston) during the Battle of Bunker Hill . The British army outnumbered the militia stationed there, but it was a pyrrhic victory for the British because their army suffered irreplaceable casualties. It was also a testament to the skill and training of
12960-475: The creation of Boston baked beans . Boston's economy stagnated in the decades prior to the Revolution. By the mid-18th century, New York City and Philadelphia had surpassed Boston in wealth. During this period, Boston encountered financial difficulties even as other cities in New England grew rapidly. The weather continuing boisterous the next day and night, giving the enemy time to improve their works, to bring up their cannon, and to put themselves in such
13104-664: The destroyed tea from the Bostonians. This angered the colonists further and led to the American Revolutionary War . The war began in the area surrounding Boston with the Battles of Lexington and Concord . Boston itself was besieged for almost a year during the siege of Boston , which began on April 19, 1775. The New England militia impeded the movement of the British Army . Sir William Howe , then
13248-526: The dramatic steel-and-concrete railroad bridge that crosses the Hell Gate segment of the East River, between Queens and Wards Island. In 1999, Burden's sculpture When Robots Rule: The Two Minute Airplane Factory was shown at the Tate Gallery in London. It was a "factory-like assembly line which manufactures rubber-band-powered model aeroplanes from tissue paper, plastic and balsa wood". Each plane had
13392-466: The elevated Central Artery and incorporated new green spaces and open areas. Boston is located within the Boston Basin ecoregion , which is characterized by low and rolling hills with a number of ponds, lakes, and reservoirs. Forests are mainly transition hardwoods such as oak - hickory mixed with white pine . As a coastal city built largely on fill , sea-level rise is of major concern to
13536-541: The first Community Health Center in the United States. It mostly served the massive Columbia Point public housing complex adjoining it, which was built in 1953. The health center is still in operation and was rededicated in 1990 as the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center. The Columbia Point complex itself was redeveloped and revitalized from 1984 to 1990 into a mixed-income residential development called Harbor Point Apartments. By
13680-560: The first American and solo exhibitions of prominent artists, such as Frida Kahlo , in 1978. Other exhibition highlights include the first solo museum shows of Dan Flavin , in 1967, and Jeff Koons , in 1988. In 1989, the MCA hosted Robert Mapplethorpe , The Perfect Moment, a traveling exhibition organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia . Additional highlights of exhibitions organized or co-organized by
13824-688: The first New York survey of the artist and his first major exhibition in the United States in over twenty-five years. Burden has also had major retrospectives at the Newport Harbor Art Museum , Newport Beach, California (1988), and the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (1996). Other solo exhibitions include "14 Magnolia Doubles" at the South London Gallery , London (2006); "Chris Burden" at the Baltic Center of Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2002); and "Tower of Power" at
13968-461: The first wave of European immigrants . Irish immigrants dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Great Famine ; by 1850, about 35,000 Irish lived in Boston . In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans , Lebanese , Syrians, French Canadians , and Russian and Polish Jews settling there. By the end of
14112-461: The fortifications and dozens of cannons on Dorchester Heights that Henry Knox had laboriously brought through the snow from Fort Ticonderoga . The astonished British awoke the next morning to see a large array of cannons bearing down on them. General Howe is believed to have said that the Americans had done more in one night than his army could have done in six months. The British Army attempted
14256-399: The full glass-walled east and west façades giving a direct view of the city and Lake Michigan . The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago was created as the result of a 1964 meeting of 30 critics, collectors and dealers at the home of critic Doris Lane Butler to bring the long-discussed idea of a museum of contemporary art to complement the city's Art Institute of Chicago , according to
14400-842: The fundraising as major donors: Jerome Stone (chairman emeritus of Stone Container Corporation ), Beatrice C. Mayer (daughter of Sara Lee Corporation founder Nathan Cummings ) and family, Mrs. Edwin Lindy Bergman, the Neison Harris (president of Pittway Corporation) and Irving Harris families, and Thomas and Frances Dittmer (commodities). The Board of Trustees then weighed architectural proposals from six finalists: Emilio Ambasz of New York; Tadao Ando of Osaka, Japan; Josef Paul Kleihues of Berlin; Fumihiko Maki of Tokyo; Morphosis of Santa Monica, Calif.; and Christian de Portzamparc of Paris. According to Chicago Tribune Pulitzer Prize -winning architecture critic Blair Kamin ,
14544-442: The glass, and took a hammer to the clock, thus ending the piece. By the end of the 1970s, Burden turned instead to vast engineered sculptural installations. In 1975, he created the fully operational B-Car , a lightweight four-wheeled vehicle that he described as being "able to travel 100 miles per hour and achieve 100 miles per gallon " (160 km/h and 43 km/L). Some of his other works from that period are DIECIMILA (1977),
14688-568: The largest Ponzi schemes in American history. As of 2013, the gallery's gold has been frozen while the SEC investigates Stanford and One Ton One Kilo cannot be mounted until the gold bullion is released. David Bowie 's 1977 song " Joe the Lion " was inspired by Burden's 1974 Trans-Fixed , where Burden crucified himself on the roof of a Volkswagen Beetle. Laurie Anderson titled her 1977 song "It's Not
14832-427: The list of contenders was controversial because no Chicago-based architects were included as finalists despite the fact that prominent Chicago architects such as Helmut Jahn and Stanley Tigerman were among the 23 semi-finalists. In fact, none of the finalists had made any prior structures in Chicago. The selection process, which started with 209 contenders, was based on professional qualifications, recent projects, and
14976-563: The majority of both the east and west façades of the building. Two additional entrances—into the education center and into the museum store—are located on either side of the main staircase. The monumental staircase with projecting bays and plinths that may be used as the base for sculpture is reminiscent of the Propylaia of the Acropolis of Athens . The main level entry hall has an adjacent 55-foot (16.8 m) atrium that connects it to
15120-536: The militia, as their stubborn defense made it difficult for the British to capture Charlestown without suffering further irreplaceable casualties. Several weeks later, George Washington took over the militia after the Continental Congress established the Continental Army to unify the revolutionary effort. Both sides faced difficulties and supply shortages in the siege, and the fighting
15264-521: The museum and other related programs. The festival spotlighted three local artists whose multi-disciplinary performance pieces were shown within the museum in a series of ticketed and non-ticketed performances. Every spring, MCA presents an annual suite of live, digital, and durational performance works in its On Stage series. Both Chicago Performs and On Stage are yearly programs at the Museum. The five-story limestone and cast-aluminum structure
15408-407: The museum as an homage to two of Chicago's architectural influences: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Louis Sullivan . Other critics also note the presence of Mies van der Rohe's spirit in the architecture. Chicago-based architect Douglas Garofalo has described the building as stark, intimidating and "incongruous with contemporary sensibilities". The interior atrium, which the architect claims links
15552-500: The museum had hired a guest art curator. In 2022, the MCA presented Nick Cave : Forothermore , the Chicago artist’s first career-spanning retrospective. After a 10-year run, the exhibition series UBS 12x12: New Artists/New Work is moving from the second floor to the third floor, into a larger gallery space and will change its name to Chicago Works . The exhibition series will still feature Chicago-area artists. Rather than each artist being displayed for one month, each exhibition in
15696-523: The museum hosted the exhibitions, Pictures To Be Read/Poetry To Be Seen, Claes Oldenburg : Projects for Monuments, and Dan Flavin: Pink and Gold , which was the artist's first solo show. In 1969, the museum served as the site of Christo 's first building wrap in the United States. It was wrapped in more than 8,000 square feet (740 m ) of tarpaulin and rope. The following year, it hosted one-person shows for Roy Lichtenstein , Robert Rauschenberg , and Andy Warhol . The MCA has also played host to
15840-552: The museum's permanent collection and work by post-emerging contemporary artists. The third floor is for the Chicago Works series. The fourth floor has gallery spaces for the MCA Screen and MCA DNA series, while the main barrel-vaulted galleries is for special exhibitions. The museum's collection consists of about 2,700 objects, as well as more than 3,000 artist's books. The collection includes works of art from 1945 to
15984-471: The museum's retrospective on Burden, remain on the institution's roof for several months in tribute. At the time of his death, Burden was also working on a watermill next to Frank Gehry 's not then yet completed aluminum tower at LUMA Arles , which was finished in 2021. Burden's work remained unfinished at the time of his passing as well. In 2013, the New Museum presented "Chris Burden: Extreme Measures", an expansive presentation of Burden's work that marked
16128-634: The nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as the Boston Architectural College , Boston College , Boston University , the Harvard Medical School , Tufts University School of Medicine , Northeastern University , Massachusetts College of Art and Design , Wentworth Institute of Technology , Berklee College of Music , the Boston Conservatory , and many others attract students to
16272-572: The nation's busiest ports for both domestic and international trade. Boston's harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (adopted during the Napoleonic Wars ) and the War of 1812 . Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Boston's merchants had found alternatives for their capital investments in the meantime. Manufacturing became an important component of
16416-632: The national average for Black American artists (almost 10 percent), and seven times the national average for the work of Black American female artists (3.6 percent).” Announced by the Chicago Tribune in June 2011, the MCA initiated the process of reinventing its identity with new curators, a new floor plan , and a new vision. MCA Director Madeleine Grynsztejn stated the museum sought to be 50/50 artist-activated/audience-engaged. The main floor's north and south galleries present exhibitions showcasing
16560-419: The official name from the "Town of Boston" to the "City of Boston", and on March 19, 1822, the people of Boston accepted the charter incorporating the city. At the time Boston was chartered as a city, the population was about 46,226, while the area of the city was only 4.8 sq mi (12 km ). In the 1820s, Boston's population grew rapidly, and the city's ethnic composition changed dramatically with
16704-564: The peninsula. The Puritans made the crossing in September 1630. Puritan influence on Boston began even before the settlement was founded with the 1629 Cambridge Agreement . This document created the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was signed by its first governor John Winthrop . Puritan ethics and their focus on education also influenced the early history of the city. America's first public school, Boston Latin School ,
16848-461: The position of the jet stream . Prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore minimize the influence of the Atlantic Ocean. However, in winter, areas near the immediate coast often see more rain than snow, as warm air is sometimes drawn off the Atlantic. The city lies at the border between USDA plant hardiness zones 6b (away from the coastline) and 7a (close to the coastline). The hottest month
16992-428: The present. Former MCA Chief Curator Elizabeth A. T. Smith provided a narrative of the museum's collection. She says the collection has examples of late surrealism , pop art , minimalism , and conceptual art from the 1940s through the 1970s; work from the 1980s that can be grouped under postmodernism ; and painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and related media current artists explore. During
17136-408: The public can experience the work and ideas of living artists, and understand the historical, social, and cultural context of the art of our time. ” In keeping with the museum’s vision of a creative and diverse future, MCA is a leader in collecting works by historically underrepresented artists “with rates more than twice the national average for the work of women (25 percent of acquisitions), four times
17280-630: The region surrounding present-day Boston was inhabited by the Massachusett people who had small, seasonal communities. When a group of settlers led by John Winthrop arrived in 1630, the Shawmut Peninsula was nearly empty of the Native people, as many had died of European diseases brought by early settlers and traders. Archaeological excavations unearthed one of the oldest fishweirs in New England on Boylston Street , which Native people constructed as early as 7,000 years before European arrival in
17424-436: The screens represented reality, or showed an intact ground floor, forcing them to realize that the screens did not represent reality); and TV Hijack (1972) wherein, during a live television interview to which he had brought his own camera crew, he held interviewer Phyllis Lutjeans at knifepoint and threatened to kill her if the station stopped live transmission (when asked about the incident in 2015, Lutjeans stated that Burden
17568-402: The series will now be displayed for three months. Starting in 2002, the MCA began commissioning artists and architects to design and construct public art for the front plaza. The goal of the program is to link the museum to its neighboring community by extending its programmatic, educational, and outreach functions. While artists have been exhibited intermittently on the MCA plaza since 2002,
17712-491: The ship is 'shadowed' by an accompanying support boat. In 2008, Burden created Urban Light , a sculptural work consisting of 202 found antique street lights that had once stood around Los Angeles. He bought the lights from the contractor who installed Urban Light, Anna Justice. The work is on view outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the solar-powered lights are illuminated at dusk. In
17856-606: The southwest by the town of Dedham and small portions of Needham and Canton , and to the southeast by the town of Milton , and the city of Quincy . The Charles River separates Boston's Allston-Brighton , Fenway-Kenmore and Back Bay neighborhoods from Watertown and Cambridge, and most of Boston from its own Charlestown neighborhood. The Neponset River forms the boundary between Boston's southern neighborhoods and Quincy and Milton . The Mystic River separates Charlestown from Chelsea and Everett, and Chelsea Creek and Boston Harbor separate East Boston from Downtown ,
18000-485: The summer 2011 plaza exhibit showcasing four works by Miami-based sculptor Mark Handforth marks a revitalization of the plaza project. From October through May, the MCA hosts monthly Family Days , which feature artistic activities for all ages. Each summer, the museum hosts Tuesdays on the Terrace , a jazz performance series, and a Farmers Market on the MCA plaza on Tuesdays from June through October. Year round,
18144-462: The summer of 2011, Burden finished his kinetic sculpture, Metropolis II , which took four years to build. It was installed at LACMA in Fall 2011. "Chris Burden's Metropolis II is an intense kinetic sculpture, modeled after a fast paced, frenetic modern city." Suspended from opposite ends of a telescoping balance beam of velvety rusted steel are a restored bright yellow 1974 Porsche sports car and
18288-487: The summers, the museum provides free outdoor Tuesday Jazz concerts. In addition to art exhibits, the museum offers dance, theater, music, and multidisciplinary arts. The programming includes primary projects and festivals of a broad spectrum of artists presented in performance, discussion, and workshop formats. The museum operates as a tax-exempt non-profit organization, and its exhibitions, programming, and operations are member-supported and privately funded. In 2020,
18432-509: The temperature dipped down to −10 °F (−23 °C); this was the lowest temperature reading in the city since 1957. In addition, several decades may pass between 100 °F (38 °C) readings; the last such reading occurred on July 24, 2022. The city's average window for freezing temperatures is November 9 through April 5. Official temperature records have ranged from −18 °F (−28 °C) on February 9, 1934, up to 104 °F (40 °C) on July 4, 1911. The record cold daily maximum
18576-657: The time being, are still subjected to individual and groups shortcomings". First presented at the Istanbul Biennial in 2001, Nomadic Folly (2001) consists of a large wooden deck made of Turkish cypress and four huge umbrellas. Visitors can relax and linger in this tent-like structure, replete with opulent handmade carpets, braided ropes, hanging glass and metal lamps, and wedding fabrics embroidered with sparkling threads and traditional patterns. In 2005, Burden released Ghost Ship , his crewless, self-navigating yacht which docked at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 28 July after
18720-612: The top in the nation for environmental sustainability and new investment. Isaac Johnson , in one of his last official acts as the leader of the Charlestown community before he died on September 30, 1630, named the then-new settlement across the river "Boston". The settlement's name came from Johnson's hometown of Boston, Lincolnshire , from which he, his wife (namesake of the Arbella ) and John Cotton (grandfather of Cotton Mather ) had emigrated to New England . The name of
18864-415: The townhouse. In his work Circus Or The Caribbean Orange (1978), Matta-Clark made circle cuts in the walls and floors of the townhouse next-door to the first museum. In 1991, the museum's Board of Trustees contributed $ 37 million ($ 82.8 million today) of the expected $ 55 million ($ 123 million) construction costs for Chicago's first new museum building in 65 years. Six of the board members were central to
19008-467: The winter of 2011–12 saw only 9.3 in (23.6 cm) of accumulating snow, but the previous winter, the corresponding figure was 81.0 in (2.06 m). The city's coastal location on the North Atlantic makes the city very prone to nor'easters , which can produce large amounts of snow and rain. Fog is fairly common, particularly in spring and early summer. Due to its coastal location,
19152-501: The work were produced and are largely in the possession of museums, including SFMOMA and the Whitney Museum of American Art . 1988's Samson was a 100-ton hydraulic jack which was connected to a turnstile such that, with each guest who entered the Newport Harbor Art Museum, timbers were rammed into the museum's supporting walls, meaning that "if enough people entered the museum, it would collapse". The exhibit
19296-475: Was a 'gentle soul', that she knew it was an art piece, and that the incident did not damage their pre-existing friendship); to conclude the piece, he demanded to be given the station's recording of the incident, which he then destroyed. One of Burden's most reproduced and cited pieces, Trans-Fixed took place on April 23, 1974, at Speedway Avenue in Venice, California . For this performance, Burden lay face up on
19440-736: Was admired for its rarefied literary life and generous artistic patronage . Members of old Boston families—eventually dubbed the Boston Brahmins —came to be regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites. They are often associated with the American upper class , Harvard University , and the Episcopal Church . Boston was a prominent port of the Atlantic slave trade in the New England Colonies , but
19584-549: Was commissioned in 2007, with updates released in 2011, 2014, and 2019. This plan includes the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance, which requires the city's larger buildings to disclose their yearly energy and water use statistics and to partake in an energy assessment every five years. A separate initiative, Resilient Boston Harbor, lays out neighborhood-specific recommendations for coastal resilience . In 2013, Mayor Thomas Menino introduced
19728-457: Was designed by Berlin architect Josef Paul Kleihues . The building, which opened in 1996, contains 45,000 square feet (4,200 m ) of gallery space (seven times the space of the old museum), a theater, studio-classrooms, an education center, a museum store, a restaurant-café, and a sculpture garden. The MCA building was Kleihues's first American structure. Its construction cost US$ 46.5 million ($ 90.3 million today). The sculpture garden, which
19872-450: Was five times larger than its predecessor, made the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago the largest institution devoted to contemporary art in the world. The physical structure is said to reference the modernism of Mies van der Rohe as well as the tradition of Chicago architecture . The museum opened at its current location June 21–22, 1996, with a 24-hour event that drew more than 25,000 visitors. In its first year of operation,
20016-499: Was forcibly disassembled by the local fire department after a complaint that it was blocking a fire exit . In 2008, Burden reported having subsequently sold Samson to "a collector in Brazil". Many of Chris Burden's later sculptures are intricate installations and structures consisting of many small parts. A Tale of Two Cities (1981) was inspired by the artist's fascination with war toys, bullets, model buildings, antique soldiers, and
20160-468: Was founded in Boston in 1635. Boston was the largest town in the Thirteen Colonies until Philadelphia outgrew it in the mid-18th century. Boston's oceanfront location made it a lively port , and the then-town primarily engaged in shipping and fishing during its colonial days. Boston was a primary stop on a Caribbean trade route and imported large amounts of molasses, which led to
20304-433: Was limited to small-scale raids and skirmishes. The narrow Boston Neck, which at that time was only about a hundred feet wide, impeded Washington's ability to invade Boston, and a long stalemate ensued. A young officer, Rufus Putnam , came up with a plan to make portable fortifications out of wood that could be erected on the frozen ground under cover of darkness. Putnam supervised this effort, which successfully installed both
20448-614: Was reversed in 2013 when it was resold to Boston businessman John W. Henry . In 2016, it was announced General Electric would be moving its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to the Seaport District in Boston, joining many other companies in this rapidly developing neighborhood. The city also saw the completion of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, known as the Big Dig , in 2007 after many delays and cost overruns. On April 15, 2013, two Chechen Islamist brothers detonated
20592-535: Was soon overtaken by Salem, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island . Boston eventually became a center of the American abolitionist movement . The city reacted largely negatively to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 , contributing to President Franklin Pierce 's attempt to make an example of Boston after Anthony Burns 's attempt to escape to freedom. In 1822, the citizens of Boston voted to change
20736-487: Was supported by the mayor and a coalition of business leaders and local philanthropists, but was eventually dropped due to public opposition. The USOC then selected Los Angeles to be the American candidate with Los Angeles ultimately securing the right to host the 2028 Summer Olympics . Nevertheless, Boston is one of eleven U.S. cities which will host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup , with games taking place at Gillette Stadium . The geographical center of Boston
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