Hidden Histories
2025 | Hidden Histories: a multi-media storytelling project using augmented reality, archival research, poetry, and dance centered on the Boston Common and Beacon Hill.
Hidden Histories: Elisa Hamilton, Clareese Hill, Sue Murad, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed.
September 1 - October 30, 2025
*Co-curated with Shana Dumont Garr
Hidden Histories highlights the processes of collaboration, artistic research, and speculation in contemporary art. The exhibition presents a series of four public art projects that combine the gallery’s mission to educate by doing, the inclusive experience of walking tours, and the idea that history is a living subject that constantly evolves, the artists received this prompt: find an aspect of the city’s past that is not currently well-known or understood and create art using new media technologies to amplify those stories.
Emerson Contemporary collaborated with Boston’s foremost historic archives: The Boston Athenaeum, Historic New England, and Massachusetts Historical Society, and the artists were subsequently invited as community research fellows. To support public access to Hidden Histories, the gallery has continued to build on their multi-year collaboration and partnership with Hoverlay, a Boston-based augmented reality platform where users can compose and publish immersive content.
Funded by The Mellon Foundation and the City of Boston.