PUBLIC ART CONSULTANT
Consulting Activities
OVERVIEW
Sarah Hutt is a longtime consultant in the areas of public art and arts advocacy.
Hutt has worked with a wide range of organizations, often taking on the role of a catalyst. She is especially dedicated to empowering organizations to carry out their plans as well as to creating new opportunities for artists and promoting their work.
SELECTED CONSULTING ENGAGEMENTS
Public Art
FRIENDS OF THE PUBLIC GARDEN, 2008 – present
Hutt worked with the President of Friends of the Public Garden (FPG) as a consultant to create a sustainable Public Art conservation plan for the 45 monuments, fountains, and statues owned by the City of Boston and under the care of the FPG. This includes regular evaluation of each artwork in the collection to establish annual conservation, restoration and cleaning priorities as well as responding to vandalism emergencies in the Public Garden, The Boston Common and the Commonwealth Mall, from iconic monuments such as Brewer Fountain and the Shaw/54th Regiment Monument to cherished artworks such as the Make Way for Ducklings sculpture. Hutt continues in that role today, working with the FPG to evaluate each artwork in the collection to establish annual conservation, restoration and cleaning priorities and schedules and then overseeing the work, as well as responding to emergencies such as vandalism.
Read about the conservation of the George Washington Monument under Hutt’s auspices.
Hutt, Sarah. “Boston Monuments: Memorial and Meaning,” Big Red and Shiny, May 12, 2016.
THE NATIONAL PARKS OF BOSTON: ART ON THE TRAILS TO FREEDOM (2016–2017)
The “Art on the Trails to Freedom” program placed art on locations on the Black Heritage Trail and the Freedom Trail.
• Regie Gibson, Everett Hoagland, Castle of Our Skins, Museum of African American History (partner of Boston African American National Historic Site).
• Maria Finkelmeier with Masary Studios, Harsh is Truth, Old South Meeting House (Boston National Historical Park Partner Site).
USS CONSTITUTION MUSEUM: ART IN THE YARD, 2018
The USS Constitution Museum hosted art installations in the Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston National Historical Park.
As curator for the Art in the Yard program, Hutt activated temporary public art in the Charlestown Navy Yard for the USS Constitution Museum with public art installations by three New England artists:
• Somerville artist Christopher Frost's Assembly sculpture evoked Building 31, the Muster House where Charlestown Navy Yard employees received their assignments.
• Boston artist Maria Finkelmeier's IronSounds was a sound installation incorporating historic and real-time acoustics of the Navy Yard as well as music created and recorded by Finkelmeier and a group of musicians.
• Boston artist Marlon Forrester's participatory art installation B.O.A.T. (Crane 65) was comprised of large-scale drawings and sculptures in the Education Center of the USS Constitution Museum.
Each artist has taken an element of the Yard through the use of native materials and sounds to memorialize the legions of people that have worked there and illuminate its unique history. It is my hope that each piece will be an unexpected experience embedded within a history tour that causes the visitor to pause, honor the memory, and humanize the vast landscape as a place where hundreds of people have lived and worked and had a profound influence on our country.”
— Sarah Hutt
NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS (NEFA)
Hutt served as an advisor for both the Fund for the Arts permanent Public Art grant program and Creative City grant program.
FEDERAL REALTY INVESTMENT TRUST — ASSEMBLY SQUARE MALL, SOMERVILLE, MA
Hutt served as curator for Art for the Urban Environment, 2008 by Geoff Hargadon. This was the first installation of temporary art at Assembly Square Mall, Somerville, MA.
FORT POINT ARTISTS COMMUNITY (FPAC), BOSTON, MA
Hutt was a member of the team that created a strategic plan for FPAC to develop the community resource, Fort Point Art Lab of Boston, a center for arts interaction, art making, and learning.
METROPOLITAN AREA PLANNING COUNCIL (MAPC), ADVISORY BOARD, BOSTON, MA
MAPC is an agency promoting smart growth and regional collaboration in greater Boston. Hutt was a contributor to the advisory panel that created and launched MAPC's Arts and Culture Department.
Arts Advocacy: Artist Live/work Spaces
Hutt has been involved in the development of several artist live/work spaces in the Boston area. In 1988 together with six others she was able to buy a City surplus building (the "Harry the Greek" building) and convert it into the first artist housing of a surplus building in Boston, where she still lives and works in the heart of what has evolved into the vibrant SoWA Arts District. She also worked to integrate artist concerns with the First Time Home Buyer program which provided artists with certification to buy low income housing. And the City of Boston’s Artist Certification Program, still in effect today, came out of this.
Hutt understands firsthand that affordable spaces for artists to live and work are fundamental to the health of the cultural community as well as the surrounding environment. In the years since pioneering artist live workspace in Boston she has served as an advisor for more than a dozen artist housing projects in the Boston and beyond.
“Harry the Greek” building, South End, Boston.
Sarah’s studio in the “Harry the Greek” building, South End, Boston — before and after purchase and conversion of building.