{"id":243840,"date":"2025-10-22T15:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T15:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/243840\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T15:35:10","slug":"is-the-best-view-in-boston-on-the-fourth-floor-of-the-ica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/243840\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the best view in Boston on the fourth floor of the ICA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usually, the lure of a museum has to do with the views available inside, of the works of art on display. At the Institute of Contemporary Art,<\/a> the lure extends to the views available outside, too. The ICA\u2019s John Hancock Founders Gallery, on the fourth floor, offers as spectacular a vantage on Boston Harbor as there is: the Mystic Bridge, Bunker Hill Monument<\/a>, the steeple of Old North Church, Logan Airport<\/a>, East Boston, the museum\u2019s ICA Watershed satellite facility, many boats, and, of course, all that water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see people all the time who take one look and have to stop and sit,\u201d said Colette Randall, the ICA\u2019s director of marketing and communications, earlier this month. \u201cTwo people who were here from Germany did just that a few minutes ago,\u201d added Margaux Leonard, director of communications.<\/p>\n

\"FireleiFirelei B\u00e1ez, “Truth was the bridge (or an emancipatory healing),” 2024. Installation view. Firelei B\u00e1ez, the Institute of Contemporary Art\/Boston.Photo by Mel Taing. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York\/Photo by Mel Taing 2024<\/p>\n

David Pires, the ICA\u2019s visitor experience manager, knows what that\u2019s like. The museum moved from Back Bay to the South Boston Waterfront in 2006. On his first visit to the new facility, Pires remembers taking in the view and \u201chaving that wow moment\u201d himself.<\/p>\n

The gallery extends 120 feet, with a height of 15 feet 6 inches. Some visitors know to seek it out. Others are taken by surprise. Patrons on their way to the fourth-floor restrooms pass through the gallery. It\u2019s not unknown to see museumgoers who are clearly in a hurry to reach that destination suddenly stop in their tracks, putting their bathroom break on hold.<\/p>\n

\"RenéeRen\u00e9e Green, “Space Poem #1,” 2007. Installation view, Ren\u00e9e Green, the Institute of Contemporary Art 2021-22.Liza Voll<\/p>\n

On occasion, an exhibition will incorporate the gallery. For a retrospective last year, Firelei B\u00e1ez executed a mural for the space, \u201cTruth was the bridge (or an emancipatory healing).\u201d Ren\u00e9e Green\u2019s installation \u201cSpace Poem #1\u201d filled the gallery\u2019s upper reaches with banners in 2021-22. <\/p>\n

The view was incorporated into a show in 2018, \u201cArt in the Age of the Internet,\u201d with a virtual-reality installation by artist Jon Rafman. Jos\u00e9 Cortez, who\u2019s visitor experience assistant manager, recalled the impact of putting on a pair of VR goggles and looking out over an altered harbor. <\/p>\n

\"JonJon Rafman, “View of Harbor,” 2017. Virtual reality headsets and 3-D simulation, from “Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today,” at the Institute of Contemporary Art.Courtesy the artist. Photo by Matthew Monteith. \u00a9 Jon Rafman<\/p>\n

The gallery is also a part of a current show, \u201cAn Indigenous Present,\u201d though not visually. Faint sounds in the exhibition grow louder the closer one gets to the Founders Gallery, where Raven Chacon has a sound installation. Its inspiration, Cortez noted, was an American flag visible near Old North Church and the Bunker Hill Monument. The installation\u2019s industrial-strength sounds evoke the flapping of the flag, as well as symbolic associations. <\/p>\n

Both Cortez and Pires spoke of the boost people appear to get as they pass through the gallery. As if on cue, Joe Fanning walked by. \u201cIt\u2019s real nice,\u201d he said. Fanning, special events production manager at the ICA, laughed at the obvious understatement. \u201cI come up here at least once a week to enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoséJos\u00e9 Cortez, visitor experience assistant manager at the Institute of Contemporary Art, enjoys the view of Boston Harbor.Suzanne Kreiter\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

With him was Amanda Gallagher, who works with the ICA\u2019s event caterer, The Catered Affair. She nodded. \u201cIt regrounds you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Usually, the lure of a museum has to do with the views available inside, of the works of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-243840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}