Arts on the Point

Founded by Professor Emeritus Paul Hayes Tucker in 1997, Arts on the Point has brought world class sculpture to Boston’s only public research university. It has engaged with the region, the city, and local communities through revolving public art installations, events, and programming focusing on Contemporary Art and art of the 20th Century. Guided by his conviction that “a public university needs public art,” Tucker attracted some of the most well-known post-modern and contemporary artists working in large-scale sculpture in the US. Artists such as Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Willem de Kooning, Dennis Oppenheim, Luis Jiménez, Sheila Pepe, and Mark di Suvero, among others, have lent artworks and visited the campus to install and speak about their work with our students. Paul Tucker retired from UMass Boston in 2012, and since 2017 the program has been led by Gallery Director Sam Toabe.

This group exhibition brings past artists of the Arts on the Point to the University Hall Gallery to celebrate the historic curatorial program. This exhibition reintroduces visitors to the program by historicizing it within the contexts of our locale, Columbia Point, and as an integral part of Boston’s long and rich history of public art. Grounded by smaller scale artworks, images of the large scale sculptures and other materials pulled from Paul Tucker’s papers, held in the archives of the Healey Library, will bring the history of Arts on the Point to life.

This exhibition is being organized by student Curatorial Assistant, Isabella Slonka as part of her honors thesis, with the support of our Gallery Director, Sam Toabe.