Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas. With more than 1.2 million visitors a year,[2] it is the 79th–most visited art museum in the world as of 2022.
Established
Founded in 1870 in Copley Square, the museum moved to its current Fenway location in 1909. It is affiliated with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts.
Community relations[edit]
The MFA also has a longstanding initiative within the Community Arts program called the Community Artist Initiative Artist Project, where the museum invites a Lead Artist to spend nine months creating works with youth from twelve after-school community organizations in the Boston area. The Artist and the children create a collaborative work of art inspired by the Museum's encyclopedic collection, and the completed project is exhibited in the Edward H. Linde Gallery (168) in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art at the MFA.[51]
The MFA offers accessibility accommodations for visitors who may be visually, audibly, or physically impaired.[52] Special programming and tours are available for blind, ASL-fluent, cognitively-impaired, autistic, and medically assisted guests.[53] In the spring of 2019 it installed new signage for its restrooms, in an effort towards "restroom accessibility for people of all genders and abilities."[54]
The MFA publicly apologized in May 2019 after African-American and mixed-race 12- and 13-year-old visitors were allegedly targeted by employees and told "No food, no drink, and no watermelon", which is considered a racial slur in the US.[55] A museum spokesperson said that the warning was actually "no water bottles", but conceded that there was no way of definitively proving what was actually said. Regardless, all museum staff dealing with school groups were to be retrained in interactions with their guests. The MFA also concluded that two of its members had been deliberately racist, and permanently banned them from visiting its grounds.[56][57][58]
In 2019 the MFA debuted its newly renamed "Indigenous Peoples' Day" (formerly Columbus Day) celebrations, with a focus on Native American art and culture.[59] The events included special displays related to Cyrus Dallin's 1908 Appeal to the Great Spirit, a popular and sometimes controversial sculpture of a Native American warrior located in front of the Huntington Avenue main entrance since 1912. Community comments and feedback concerning the monumental artwork were solicited and displayed.[59] Earlier, in March 2019, the MFA had held a special public symposium to discuss the historical background and present-day significance of the sculpture.[60]
In 2020 the MFA had planned to offer 11 annual Community Celebrations, featuring free admission for all visitors, and special events such as dance performances, music, tours, craft demonstrations, and hands-on art making. This series included day-long Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lunar New Year, Memorial Day, Highland Street Foundation Free Fun Friday, and Indigenous Peoples' Day celebrations. In addition, on Wednesday evenings, which were already free from 4pm to 10pm, special celebrations of Nowruz, Juneteenth, Latinx Heritage Night, ASL Night, Diwali, and Hanukkah were featured.[61]
To commemorate its 150th anniversary, the MFA offered a free one-year family membership to anyone who attended one of its special Community Celebrations or MFA Late Nite programs during 2020. This "First Year Free Membership" program was available to anyone who had not previously been a member of the museum.[62] The 150th year exhibitions included major shows and events featuring art by women and minority artists.[63][64][65]
King Menkaura (Mycerinus) and queen, 2490–2472 BCE
Winged Protective Deity, 883–859 BCE
Goddess Tawaret, 623–595 BCE
Marine Mosaic, 200–230 CE
A bulletin appeared under various titles from 1903 to 1983:[73]
