Revolution! 250 Years of Art + Activism in Boston
Design Studio: C&G Partners
Photography by: Mel Taing
Marking 250 years since the Revolutionary War and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Revolution! 250 Years of Art & Activism in Boston explores the nation’s founding ideals, questioning who they served and how they have been upheld.
Exhibition and Identity
Photography by: Mel Taing
Spanning more than two centuries, the exhibition traces Boston’s enduring role in the struggle for freedom and justice through historically significant and resonant works drawn from the Boston Public Library’s collections, including prints, photographs, drawings, paintings, and sculpture.
Photography by: Mel Taing
Photography by: Mel Taing
The exhibition design language draws from the visual vernacular of DIY protest culture. Elements such as wheat-pasted mural graphics, fabric banners, tape typography, untreated plywood, and rented scaffolding reference grassroots activism and public expression.
Photography by: Mel Taing
Photography by: Mel Taing
Because the exhibition centers on American revolutionary ideas, the design intentionally embraces familiar clichés and recognizable touchpoints. Blue sections evoke construction-site barricades as surfaces for emerging ideas and messages, while tape lines abstract and deconstruct the stripes of the American flag, creating a unifying graphic system that connects themes and organizes content.
Photography by: Mel Taing
Photography by: Mel Taing
Installed in the McKim Exhibition Hall at the Boston Public Library’s Central Library, the exhibition creates a dialogue between its raw, utilitarian materials and the grandeur of the historic architecture. The contrast between scaffolding, posters, and tape against columns and ornate ceilings mirrors the tension and duality inherent in the American experiment itself.