Mapping Boston's Cultural Landscape – From the Vault Collections Showing

What can maps tell us about a city’s cultural life—and what do they leave out?

For this edition of From the Vault, Jameson Johnson, founder and executive director of Boston Art Review, selects eight objects from the Leventhal Map & Education Center’s collections that trace Boston’s changing cultural landscape.

Focusing primarily on materials from the 1970s–1990s, alongside earlier examples dating back to 1947, the selection includes selections from the Boston Redevelopment Authority planning documents, guide maps, and even an experimental downtown kiosk that printed walking routes to local businesses and attractions.

Drawing connections to Boston Art Radar, an initiative mapping the region’s arts and cultural spaces, Johnson examines how maps reveal patterns of investment and development, the conditions that allow cultural spaces to take root and survive, and how decisions about what gets mapped shape public perceptions of a city's cultural life.

This free showing will be held Friday, October 16 in the Leventhal Center Gallery with a staff member from the Leventhal Center and Jameson Johnson available to answer questions.

Jameson Johnson is a writer, curator, and community organizer based in Boston. She is the founder and executive director at Boston Art Review, an online and print publication founded in 2017 committed to facilitating discourse around contemporary art across New England. Her writing has also appeared in Artsy, Artnet, Upstate Diary, and the Boston Globe among others. In 2025, she launched the Boston Art Radar, a mapping platform for more than 200 cultural spaces across Greater Boston. 

Registration not required. Drop by our Gallery any time between 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm.