The ICA Watershed lends an
expansive, open exhibition space that retains the rugged
character of the building’s past
Watershed.
In East Bostons shipyard lies a former
copper pipe and sheet metal factory first opened in the 19th
century. Before longtime Institute of Contemporary Art director
Jill Medvedow orchestrated the repurposing of the dilapidated
structure, it was the only unoccupied building left in the active
shipyard and marina. A sleek garage-style door ushers visitors into
a 50-by-300-foot outpost. It’s gritty but clean, with untouched
exposed brick and a colossal new roof. Industrial gantries and
chains hang from the ceiling. Old train tracks are still visible
across the floor, keeping with the buildings original elements and
wholeheartedly integrating the space with East Boston.
The Watershedwhich opens at the far end to the harboris named as
a reference both to its location along Boston Harbor and what the
museum hopes the new venue will symbolize for Bostons arts
community. It is the neighborhoods first major arts destination,
dramatically altering the vibe of East Bostons urban landscape.
It was Medvedow who initiated the move the ICA, founded in 1936,
to the once-isolated Seaport neighborhood in 2006. Designed by
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the 65,000-square-foot contemporary art
venue once stood alone in a sea of parking lots. Today, the area is
booming with new construction, and the museum has further expanded
into another less-treaded area with the lease of the condemned
15,000-square-foot space, located six minutes across the harbor. A
$10 million restoration of the derelict building by Anmahian Winton
Architects brought the building up to code.
We always knew, when we built the ICA, that there were going to
be buildings that came up around and behind it, said Medvedow at
The Watersheds ribbon-cutting in June. As we began to think about
an expansion, we started to think about the ways in which we could
welcome more and more people into the ICA community, how to expand
the circle, how to grow our audience, [and] how to create
extraordinary encounters with works of art. It seemed like an
important and perfect spot.
With the development of The Watershed, the ICA has stressed the
impact of the institution on the cultural and civic lives of its
local communities. Admission is free (the ferry is included with
museum admission, though the Watershed can be accessed via a
10-minute walk from the nearest T stop), and all exhibition texts
are presented in English and Spanish, in the hope of being more
accessible to East Boston residents, more than half of whom speak
Spanish.
We wanted to make sure that people from East Boston felt welcome
here, and that we reduced all barriers to participation, Medvedow
has said. Its yet another way of trying to be inviting to people
for whom sometimes museums are unfamiliar or daunting.
To that end, the long and narrow space features a wall map of
what the area looked like in the early 1800s, highlighting the
group of raised islands that were once East Boston. A shipyard
gallery and short film that calls on historians, community leaders
and residents to divulge the neighborhoods history is also on
display.
Waterfront.
San Francisco-born artist Diana Thater inaugurated the new space
with two monumental works. The installation centered on Delphine,
designed as a response to The Watersheds raw, industrial space and
waterfront location. According to the ICAs website, Delphine
created an immersive underwater environment through underwater film
and video footage of swimming dolphins across the museums ceiling,
floor, and walls. As Medvedow described, Thaters immersive
experiences through light and moving-image projections offer[ed]
visitors an extraordinary introduction to the Watershed and
raise[ed] urgent questions about the impact of human intervention
on the environment.
Sculptural video installations including A Runaway World and As
Radical as Reality comprise Thaters second exhibit, focused on the
experiences of species on the verge of extinction and the illicit
economies that threaten their survival.
Id say the mission of the space is multifold, continued
Medvedow. One piece is having artists whose work has some relevance
and connection to that site. That can include ideas about labor and
the working people in that shipyard. In the case of Diana Thater,
those ideas are about the fragility and vulnerability of the
natural environment. In the future it might be about the material
in that space.
The citys waterfront and harbor, scene of the historic Boston
Tea Party, imparts a rich backdrop for artists exploring societal
issuesfrom immigration to global commerce rising sea levels. After
all, the shipyard used to be second only to Ellis Island as the
largest port for immigration to America. That legacy continues as
part of the makeup of East Boston.
The Watershed serves as a site for the type of large-scale solo
presentations that do not fit comfortably within the walls of the
ICA’s flagship at Fan Pier in the Seaport. It is open to the public
during the warm months of the year. A new exhibition will occupy
the space for the next season, which will run between the months of
May and October.
Waterfront.