FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Announces Summer Exhibition Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform On View: June 20, 2019 – Sept. 15, 2019

Lewis Wickes Hine, Boys Picking over Garbage in "the Dumps", Boston 1909. Photograph (5 x 7 in). National Archives. 1912.

BOSTON, MA (May 2019) – This June, Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform, an exhibition examining how landscape architects and photographers in the late 1800s and early 1900s advocated for social reform in Boston, New York, and Chicago, opens at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Using city plans, archival materials, historical maps, and photographs, the exhibition invites visitors to see how photographers and landscape architects of the past advocated for social reform, and explore how their work speaks to the urban challenges of our time. The exhibition runs from June 20 to Sept. 15.

Frederick Law Olmsted, the founder of landscape architecture, sought to edify and improve life circumstances through public parks, such as Central Park in New York and The Back Bay Fens in Boston. Similar to Olmsted, Isabella Stewart Gardner built her Museum with a public purpose, believing that access to art would have a powerful and positive impact on the life of the city and the nation. Many of the urban changes that took place during Gardner’s time helped shape Boston into the city it is today. Through the exhibition, its interpretive materials, and long- format video, visitors will be able to imagine the Boston of Gardner’s time, while drawing connections to contemporary issues of historic and environmental preservation, social justice, and economic inequality that shape the city today.

“Revisiting the origins of landscape architecture and city planning in relation is particularly timely as we confront increasingly contested images of our collective urban futures,” said Charles Waldheim, the Museum’s Ruettgers Curator of Landscape. “Literally built upon Olmsted’s design of The Fens in Boston’s Back Bay, the Gardner Museum is a perfect venue for this exhibition, which comes at a crucial time as we reconsider progressive urban visions in the context of economic, ecological, and societal change.”

“There are parallels between the influence of these historical photos and images from the turn of the century, and the power images have today in their ability to be captured and shared ubiquitously,” said Sara Zewde, assistant curator of Big Plans. “Sharing these images is a form of reporting on important issues, and amplifies their potential to prompt change, both then and now.”

Audiences will also be invited to consider the role of urban landscape in their own lives, including how sharing images of parks on social media contributes to the shared history of public spaces.

Supporting programming will work closely with artists and youth leaders in the Boston community. The Map This project will coincide with the exhibition and bring together Neighborhood Salon Luminary artist Nathalia JMag, local youth-serving partner organizations, and engineering students from Olin College to consider Big Plans through a series of workshops exploring “alternative maps” as a way of interpreting and reinterpreting Boston communities.

“By building her Museum here, Isabella was one of the first to see the potential of The Fens for what it could be,” said Peggy Fogelman, the Norma Jean Calderwood Director. “Big Plans brings this part of her legacy and the historical context of landscape architecture into the present day. It’s an opportunity for us to admire the beauty and foresight of these parks and public spaces while considering who they impact and how they connect us to one another.”

LINK TO HIGH RES IMAGES HERE

The lead sponsors of Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform are Gwill York and Paul Maeder. Additional support is generously provided by the Wallace Minot Leonard Foundation. The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which receives support from the State of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - a magical creation of one woman's daring vision - invites you to awaken your senses and be transported. Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, unforgettable galleries surround a luminous courtyard and are home to masters such as Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, Whistler, and Sargent. The Renzo Piano wing provides a platform for contemporary artists, musicians, and scholars, and serves as an innovative venue where creativity is celebrated in all of its forms.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum • 25 Evans Way Boston MA 02215 • Hours: Open Daily from 11a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursdays until 9 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. • Admission: Adults $15; Seniors $12; Students $10; Free for members, children under 18, everyone on his/her birthday, and all named “Isabella” • $2 off admission with a same-day Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ticket • For information 617 566 1401 • Box Office 617 278 5156 • www.gardnermuseum.org

MEDIA CONTACTS DIANA BROWN MCCLOY TEAK MEDIA 978.697.9414 [email protected]

GRIFF MCNERNEY COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM 617.264.6061 [email protected]