University Archives and Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston is pleased to announce the launch of its inaugural Artist Unresidency Pilot Program — a unique artist residency model that supports creative engagement with archival materials without requiring a physical residency. This initiative reflects the UMass Boston Archives’ commitment to fostering innovative approaches to archival engagement while exploring the intersections of art and archives. This pilot program is supported by an Innovation Grant awarded by Art+Everywhere, a global, artist-led foundation that supports creative experimentation, collaboration, and care.
Five local artists have been selected for this pilot program to explore the UMass Boston Archives and create original artwork inspired by their research. Working independently in their own studios, the artists will draw inspiration from the archives through in-person visits throughout the summer and fall of 2025.
To support their work, artists will receive an orientation to the UMass Boston Archives and the collections they have selected to use, with archivists available to support their research throughout the process. Each artist will receive a small stipend to support the development of their project.
The resulting artworks will be featured in a public exhibition in the Grossmann Gallery at UMass Boston’s Healey Library, on view from January 20 to May 15, 2026. The exhibit will be co-curated by Jeremy Andreatta, board member of Art+Everywhere, Art History Professor Carol Scollans, and UMB archivist Meghan Bailey.
As part of the exhibition programming, a public artist panel will be held on campus, offering the community an opportunity to hear directly from the participating artists about their creative processes and the role archival materials played in shaping their artwork.
For questions about the Artist Unresidency Pilot Program or the UMass Boston Archives, contact library.archives@umb.edu.
In Between Middle: Where Stories Reside, an exhibition opening June 10, 2025, in the Grossmann Gallery on the fifth floor of the Healey Library, features photographs by Lisa Kessler, and artwork and textual narratives collaboratively created by students and staff of the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Dorchester, MA. The exhibit is hosted by the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston. The Frederick, the last standalone middle school in the Boston Public School system, will close this year as part of a broader district-wide restructuring. This project captures the final year of the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School, a community located in the Grove Hall neighborhood of Boston.
The exhibition will be on display through December 5, 2025. A reception will be held in the Grossmann Gallery of the Healey Library on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, from 4:00-5:30 p.m. Members of the university community and the general public are welcome to attend.
As a restorative justice school, the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School is rooted in community and collective responsibility. Its foundation rests on the five pillars of PRIDE: Personal Responsibility, Respect, Integrity, Determination, and Empathy. Students and staff have long strived to embody the values championed by the school’s namesake, Ms. Lilla Frederick—a Grove Hall resident, tireless community advocate, and passionate believer in the potential of every child.
While the Frederick will no longer serve as a middle school, the community views this transformation with cautious optimism. The shift to a more unified K-6 and 7-12 school model represents an opportunity to address the long-standing systemic inequities and create more equitable access for all of Boston’s children. The building will continue to serve the children and families of Grove Hall as an elementary school—and it will continue to carry the name Lilla G. Frederick, a lasting tribute and a powerful reminder that “someone you never knew believed fiercely in you.”
This project was made possible with support from Unity Circles whose commitment to centering communities most impacted by carceral systems and for their leadership in cultivating intergenerational networks grounded in the principles of Restorative Justice and Transformative Justice. Their support has been instrumental in helping Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School document and archive the powerful community and justice efforts taking place across our learning community. This work reflects our shared vision of supporting young people in developing to their full potential in a welcoming and nurturing environment and creating positive connections to the larger community and the world they will lead.
University Archives and Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston collects materials related to the university’s history, as well as materials that reflect the institution’s urban mission and strong support of community service, notably in collections of records of urban planning, social welfare, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, and local history related to neighboring communities.
University Archives and Special Collections welcomes inquiries from individuals, organizations, and businesses interested in donating materials of an archival nature that that fit within our collecting policy. These include manuscripts, documents, organizational archives, collections of photographs, unique publications, and audio and video media. For more information about donating to University Archives and Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.
The Denim Day display is currently on view in the Grossmann Gallery on the fifth floor of the Healey Library. This display features a collection of denim jeans that serve as an example of what survivors were wearing when they were sexually assaulted. The Denim Day campaign is an opportunity for survivors of sexual assault to raise awareness of rape myths and rape culture, where victims are often blamed for what they were wearing. The stories in the display cases were sourced from the Susan B. Anthony Project’s What Were You Wearing? exhibit. The Denim Day display is featured as part of a series of campus events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month hosted by UMass Boston’s Title IX Office for Students. For more information, email Brikitta O. Hairston, Title IX and Civil Rights Investigator for Students, at brikitta.hairston@umb.edu. The display will be on view through May 31, 2025.
University Archives and Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston collects materials related to the university’s history, as well as materials that reflect the institution’s urban mission and strong support of community service, notably in collections of records of urban planning, social welfare, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, and local history related to neighboring communities.
University Archives and Special Collections welcomes inquiries from individuals, organizations, and businesses interested in donating materials of an archival nature that that fit within our collecting policy. These include manuscripts, documents, organizational archives, collections of photographs, unique publications, and audio and video media. For more information about donating to University Archives and Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.
Connecting Ties: A Transatlantic Friendship and the Northern Ireland Peace Process, an exhibition opening next week in the Grossmann Gallery on the fifth floor of the Healey Library, illustrates through textile language the human dimension to the relationship between the United States, Ireland, and the Northern Ireland peace process.
A collage featuring three arpilleras at the core of this exhibition: Pat Hume, Tip O’Neill, and John Hume, Peacemaker. (Design and photo: Leisa Duffy, Copyright Conflict Textiles)
The exhibition is co-curated by Conflict Textiles, a unique transnational collection of textiles focused on conflict and human rights abuses, in partnership with John Hume & Thomas P. O’Neill Chair in Peace, INCORE, Ulster University, and the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston. It will be on view from November 17, 2023 through May 2024. Prior to the exhibition opening, the Tip O’Neill textile will be unveiled at the Golden Bridges 2023: Conference Luncheon, where John Hume, Peacemaker and Pat Hume will also be displayed.
The Northern Ireland Conflict (“The Troubles,” 1969-1994), which focused on the division of the island of Ireland, left more than 3,600 people dead, many more injured, and impacted all sectors of society. From the mid-1970s, key individuals from the United States, including Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and Massachusetts Congressman Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, were involved in discussions and negotiations during the peace process, culminating in the Good Friday Agreement signed in April 1998. In supporting peace in Northern Ireland, Tip O’Neill worked closely with John Hume, the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Northern Ireland. This unique friendship and the contribution of John Hume’s wife Pat are illustrated in the exhibition.
Tip O’Neill, by Lisa Raye Garlock, 2023. Recycled, hand-printed, and hand-dyed fabrics (cotton, linen, silk, wool), Irish linen, felt, and neckties (provided by the O’Neill family), Conflict Textiles collection. (Photo: Lisa Raye Garlock)
The exhibition showcases three specially commissioned textiles highlighting the interconnections and work of these essential people in the peace process. The three textiles entitled Tip O’Neill, Pat Hume, and John Hume, Peacemaker are accompanied by several Northern Ireland textiles depicting the conflict and search for peace in the late twentieth century. Four of these pieces, on loan from Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Museum Collection, were created in workshops in Northern Ireland in 2012 and 2013, during which two Northern Ireland communities explored the legacy of the conflict through textile language.
These textiles and many others on display draw their inspiration from early Chilean arpilleras, which are appliquéd picture textiles, handsewn from scraps of fabric onto hessian or burlap. Three Chilean arpilleras from the 1980s and 1990s narrate ordinary peoples’ experiences of the oppressive seventeen-year-long Pinochet dictatorship, which seized power in September 1973. An arpillera from neighboring Argentina articulates the human rights violations of the Videla regime (1976-1983) and the enduring, courageous protests by the Abuelas (Grandmothers) de Plaza de Mayo.
University Archives and Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston collects materials related to the university’s history, as well as materials that reflect the institution’s urban mission and strong support of community service, notably in collections of records of urban planning, social welfare, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, and local history related to neighboring communities.
University Archives and Special Collections welcomes inquiries from individuals, organizations, and businesses interested in donating materials of an archival nature that that fit within our collecting policy. These include manuscripts, documents, organizational archives, collections of photographs, unique publications, and audio and video media. For more information about donating to University Archives and Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.
University Archives and Special Collections is pleased to highlight an exhibition that features the artwork of Theresa-India Young and other contemporary artists. Legacy: A Continuous Thread will be held at the Piano Craft Gallery from October 1-24, 2021. A reception is scheduled for October 15 from 6:00-9:00 pm.
Postcard for “Legacy: A Continuous Thread” featuring Theresa-India Young and contemporary fiber artists
University Archives and Special Collections holds the Theresa-India Young papers, 1917-2011, bulk 1975-2008. This collection documents the life and work of fiber artist, interdisciplinary arts teacher, and educational consultant Theresa-India Young. The collection also contains personal papers relating to Young’s family, her early years in Harlem, and her education, travel, and genealogical research, particularly into her Gullah heritage. Young’s interest in and advocacy for multiculturalism and diversity in education is well-documented throughout the collection, with a particular focus on unearthing and preserving African and Native American traditions. Her fiber art was informed by her research into African aesthetics and traditions, particularly weaving and hair braiding. Much of her research is preserved in the collection in the form of clippings, handwritten notes, and varied publications. As a longtime resident of the Piano Factory, Young lived and worked within a dynamic local arts scene. The collection documents her relationships with other local artists, like Allan-Rohan Crite, as well as the issues they faced, such as affordable housing.
In the late 1960s Young was a student at the Harlem Youth Arts Program (Haryou Act) and studied with painter Norman Lewis and was an apprentice to Zelda Wynn, Costume Designer for the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She graduated from the High School of Art and Design in 1968 and studied at various institutions, such as Parsons School of Design and SUNY at New Paltz, where she received a degree in Arts Education and African Studies in 1973. In 1972 she studied West African Religion and Art at the University of Legon in Accra, Ghana.
In 1975 she won a scholarship to Boston University’s Program in Artisanry for Textiles. Since that time, she resided in the Boston area and maintained a home and studio at the Piano Factory artists’ building. From 1978-1983 she was Artist-in-Residence at Northeastern University’s African American Master Artist-in-Residency Program (AAMARP).
For more information on Theresa-India Young’s life and work see the finding aid for the Theresa-India Young papers.
University Archives and Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston collects materials related to the university’s history, as well as materials that reflect the institution’s urban mission and strong support of community service, notably in collections of records of urban planning, social welfare, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, and local history related to neighboring communities.
University Archives and Special Collections welcomes inquiries from individuals, organizations, and businesses interested in donating materials of an archival nature that that fit within our collecting policy. These include manuscripts, documents, organizational archives, collections of photographs, unique publications, and audio and video media. For more information about donating to University Archives and Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.
