PUBLIC RESTROOMS
The Friends provides seasonal public restrooms on Boston Common through a partnership with MeetBoston, Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, and the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism. The restroom trailer is easily accessible for visitors to both Boston Common and the Public Garden. You can find it along MacArthur Mall, halfway between the Charles/Beacon entrance to the Common and the mid-block crossing of Charles Street.
The restroom trailers feature:
- 3 women’s stalls and a sink
- 2 men’s stalls, 3 urinals, and a sink
- 1 ADA restroom with 1 toilet, 1 urinal, and a sink
- Security person on site, in a kiosk next to the unit, during hours of operation
- The restrooms are cleaned every 4 hours while open.
PUBLIC ART
The three parks parks are home to 42 pieces of public art – the largest collection in Boston. The seasonal restroom trailer offers a unique opportunity for public art in the Common, and gives us all the opportunity to explore the parks in a new way.
This years trailer wrap features the piece Bright City Symphony by Boston-based Artists for Humanity youth artist Sinai Phillips-Thompson.
Sinai was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. As a child, she discovered her passion for painting during paint nights with her brother. Creativity has always been a part of her life, extending into various hobbies. Acrylic has been her preferred medium, as it was the first one she used, but she is eager to explore other mediums, such as oil paint and charcoal. She has considered herself an artist for about four or five years. In early 2023, she joined Artists for Humanity after learning about the program from a friend.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is deeply inspired by the natural beauty of my surroundings, whether I’m driving with friends and family or exploring new horizons through hiking and neighborhood walks. With my artwork, I aim to reveal the overlooked details in nature that often go unnoticed in daily life. I strive to highlight how every element in nature, though familiar, is unique in its own way. Through my work, I hope to inspire viewers to appreciate the diversity and beauty that surrounds them.
PREVIOUS WORKS
ARTIST STATEMENT
In 2024, we were thrilled to welcome Naragansett artist Dawn Spears and her abstract illustration work to Boston Common. Dawn’s pieces, WHAT IT WAS BEFORE I & II, BEST FRIENDS, STRAWBERRY DAUGHTERS, SEQUAN WEÉSUMMIS (SPRING SISTER), STRAWBERRY MATRIARCHY, were installed on the seasonal restroom trailer along Charles Street. The trailer also featured an image of the ancient Indigenous landscape that became the Common and Garden, thanks to City Archaeologist Joe Bagley.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Dawn Spears is inspired by the vibrant colors and patterns of the natural world and the symbolism within her Indigenous culture. Her hand-painted tote bags, shoes, and jackets are one of a kind. She also makes cornhusk dolls and has created a line of richly detailed posters and art cards from works in her sketchbook. In addition to abstract geometric and floral patterns, many of her works honor women’s roles. The female figures are meant to offer solace to those who need it, and often lack facial features so that all women can see themselves and their loved ones in the figures. Dawn was immersed in art from an early age, as a child assisting her mother, the Choctaw artist and educator Diosa Summers. Dawn has shown her work at the American Indian Arts Marketplace at the Autry Museum, Heard Museum Indian Fair & Market, SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market, and We Are the Seeds. Dawn is dedicated to teaching about Eastern Woodland culture through her art and activism.
In 2023, we partnered with Boston’s Artists For Humanity. We introduced Angel Koirala in 2023, a Boston teen artist who created the original mural titled “Heelo Fool” in her native Nepalese.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Wow, Where do I even begin? The word “Heelo” in my native tongue Nepalese, means mud. The word “Fool” means flower. “Heelo Fool” is a personification of my challenges as an adolescent, “a flower blooming in the mud”. I was a teenager with a lot of emotions when I created this piece, and it shows in the art. The intentions behind the choice of colors, the bright orange accent, and the spots of white that trail the canvas are to capture the act of self-becoming and evoke emotion in the mind of the audience.
ARTIST BIO
Although I only worked at Artists For Humanity (AFH) for one summer, it was the best decision I made as a 16-year-old. AFH showed me that creating art is a skill and a career path that is substantial and stable. Growing up in an immigrant family, the idea of creating art for a living was heavily frowned upon. However joining the AFH team sparked a fire in me, a fire that continues to burn. I am now pursuing art as a career. Despite all the doubts and pressure, I continue to create and owe it all to AFH. In this past year, I started a Tattoo apprenticeship and have grown as an artist. I still paint and draw for myself in my free time, hoping I can also spark a fire in others the way AFH did for me.
SOBEK
With a unique canvas to fill, the Friends went looking for a uniquely Boston artist to share their talents with our community. We were thrilled to welcome Sobek and his surrealist aerosol work to Boston Common. Sobek created a mural depicting the history of the Common.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Art is life. It is beauty that is natural and boundless, peaceful or raging. It is therefore a force for the cause of social justice, and a means by which I can immediately express what I feel and believe.
I have been humbled by hardships and because I could only create with the bare necessities, I have developed a style that is unique, using acrylics and spray paint to achieve gritty, urban imagery that is simultaneously surreal. By layering and mixing spray paint with acrylic I’m able to create a chalky, almost pastel-like filter, that also stretches my paint supply for future works. I find inspiration in the city and neighborhoods where I was raised.
I’ve been defined by others as an illustrator, a muralist, a graffiti artist, but I prefer to define myself as an artistic motivator, encouraging youth and adults to discover their own freedom of expression and the peace it bestows. I attribute much of my inspiration and enlightenment to Paul Goodnight, Rob Gibbs, Richard Gomez, Damon Butler, and Jason Talbot, all men of color; local heroes, who fill me with pride.
ARTIST BIO – Sobek (Jeremy Harrison)
I remember the first time I drew a picture I liked. I was in fourth grade on Halloween during a paper plate mask contest. I copied the bloody face of a werewolf my oldest brother had drawn the night before. I loved what I created so much I did not even enter it in the contest. Instead, I copied it over again for the rest of class.
My mind is a temple and art is the kung fu I train, it is my life. I have grown to realize its value and power, especially during the hardships I face as a Native man of color. My direct interactions with inequality and prejudices have influenced my style of painting. The people I create are Black and proud, yet you can see their pain. My Graffiti is a sharp abstract 3-d flow that twists, bends and is forceful. I lay my foundation with spray paint first, then combine it with acrylic paint. By doing so I can render soft tones and moods, as well as stretch my limited supply of materials.
I have no formal training; my knowledge comes from studying and experience working with others. My passion for the arts, specifically Graffiti, and its positive representation has led me to start Back Against the Wall. My initiative helps the inner-city community by making their words visible on a larger scale encouraging the positive power of words. Graffiti is an important part of this mission because it was birthed through rebellious strength motivating a culture to recognize the importance of letters.
A HISTORY OF PUBLIC ART
The term “graffiti” has negative connotations for many of us. Here in the parks we spend thousands of dollars and many hours dealing with this type of vandalism. But graffiti can also be art. Graffiti art takes the techniques and methodologies behind street graffiti and applies them to other mediums. Graffiti art takes graffiti off the streets and allows it to be sold, exhibited, and displayed in other environments.
Public art in its many forms dates back to prehistoric times. Cave paintings, petroglyphs and pictographs have been found all over the world from Australia, to China to the Lascaux cave paintings in France. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans graffitied their names and protest poems on public buildings.
Famous modern artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring got their start as more traditional artists after experimenting with graffiti. Banksy began his career as a graffiti artist in the early 1990s, and now his worldwide fame has transformed his artwork to sought-after high art pieces. Here in Boston, Brazilian twins known professionally as Os Gemeos created the mural called the Giant of Boston on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in 2012.
You can learn about other famous graffiti artists here.
We also want to celebrate the 30th year of the Mayor’s Mural Crew employing Boston high schoolers to create large-scale public art projects across Boston’s neighborhoods and City parks.