Seventeen temporary banners on light poles in the Cambridge Common as part of a public art project

How it started

Requested by Cambridge Arts Council — a request that needs the Council’s permission.

What happened

✅ Adopted — the Council approved it (Order adopted · Apr 24, 2017)

Present and voting at this meeting (8)

Craig A. Kelley
David Maher
Dennis Carlone
E. Denise Simmons
Jan Devereux
Marc McGovern
Nadeem Mazen
Timothy J. Toomey

Adopted by voice vote. A voice vote records the outcome, not individual positions — no member's yes or no is on the record (though a member can ask to be recorded in the negative in the minutes). Showing the members who cast recorded votes at this meeting. Rule 6 requires a roll call for spending over $50 or on any member's request; state law requires one for every vote when a member participates remotely. · photos: City of Cambridge

What’s next

🚪 End of the line.

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The document Agenda item attachment · 1 page

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To The Honorable City Councillors, We respectfully request your approval for the temporary installation (May-September 2017) of artistic banners on light poles at Cambridge Common as part of a public art project described in detail in the attached document. I am also attaching the approval from the Electrical Department. In brief, the Arts Council is collaborating Dina Deitsch, curator and Public Art Commission member, on a suite of temporary public art projects that honor the recent renovation of the Common.

One of those projects is being created by Kelly Sherman, a Cambridge artist. Kelly has developed a project, entitled We Were Here – Memories of the Cambridge Common, that celebrates personal memories of the Common, and in so doing, expands the usual notion of a public memorial being for famous individuals or events and instead highlights the rich stories from ordinary citizens who have contributed to the civic use of a historical and important public space at the heart of the City.

Kelly Sherman transforms the descriptions of individual memories into poetic banners that will be mounted on various light poles through the Common. Kelly Sherman is one of 10 artists selected for the suite of public art projects, collectively entitled Common Exchange. Common Exchange includes performances, installations, three exhibitions in Gallery 344 in the City Hall Annex, and a special-edition, four-issue newspaper being designed by the Community Design Studio at Lesley University College of Art and Design.

I attach the press release for Common Exchange for further information. We are requesting approval from the City Council for Kelly Sherman’s art banners, which will be installed in early May and removed at the end of September 2017. Thank you, Lillian

Lillian Hsu, Director of Public Art and Exhibitions