Suzanne Moseley and Liz Shepherd, People, Plants & Revolution 1775-2025, silkscreen
Public Art Commemorating Arlington 250
On view April 5 - May 23, 2025
Sat 4/5, 4-6 pm: Opening reception - with a special appearance by Midnight Rider William Dawes
Sun 4/6, 11 am - 2 pm: Arlington 250 Kickoff Party at the Capitol Theatre; Gallery open 12-5 pm
Sat 4/26, 4-6 pm: Telling Stories - a conversation with Cecily Miller and the artists of Untold Stories
Sat 5/10, 4-6 pm: Show and Tell - a demonstration of natural dyeing techniques and sustainability practices in art and fashion with Asia Kepka
Listen to the People, Plants & Revolution audio tour here.
View the map of Then & Now: An Arlington Timeline here.
13FOREST Gallery has been proud to use our Outside/In series of artist talks to highlight Arlington’s dynamic public art program, curated by Cecily Miller of ArtsArlington, since 2017. To continue this tradition and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, we are pleased to present Untold Stories: Public Art Commemorating Arlington 250. For the first time we will bring public art into the gallery in a special exhibition featuring three projects that explore Arlington’s contributions to that significant period in our history.
On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere, William Dawes and a band of other colonists began their famous ride from Boston to alert residents that British troops were on the march to raid a stockpile of military supplies in Concord. In the darkness of early morning the next day, those troops marched through Arlington, knocking on doors at signs of suspicious activity. Less than 12 hours later, colonists on the Lexington town green fired the “shot heard round the world,” launching the American Revolution. The British soldiers returned to Boston in retreat, once again passing through Arlington but this time with violence and loss of life on both sides.
The projects highlighted in Untold Stories commemorate Arlington’s role in the revolution by illuminating the stories of the indigenous people and colonists who lived in the village then known as Menotomy in the days leading up to the war. Each project shares our local history through a unique lens, uncovering new facets of the past while building connections to the present day.
Suzanne Moseley and Liz Shepherd have collaborated on People, Plants & Revolution, a vibrant series of silkscreen prints that combine colonial imagery with botanical illustrations to explore Arlington’s evolution through its flora. Plants and their cultivation played an essential role in Arlington’s early way of life as a rustic farming community. This series provides a unique perspective on our shared history, exploring the ways that plants were used for everything from building materials to medicine to political protest – from women spinning flax in public to protest unjust taxes on imported textiles to the Sons of Liberty dumping tea from China into Boston Harbor. The prints will be replicated as a series of banners displayed along Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington Center for the public to experience. An accompanying audio tour enriches Moseley and Shepherd’s work with a diversity of voices and insights that reveal the profound connection between nature and the people of Arlington.
Nilou Moochhala presents Then & Now: An Arlington Timeline, a thought-provoking project that pairs archival materials with contemporary images and text to create powerful connections between Arlington’s past and present. The project includes multiple components designed to spark conversation about local history, including sidewalk installations, a postcard series and an installation at 13FOREST. This gallery installation highlights three pivotal moments in Arlington’s development, chosen by Moochhala to illuminate the ongoing dialogue between history and modern life in the community.
Sculptor Christopher Frost has reimagined the concept of a monument through his project Stepping Up, temporary public sculptures of pedestals that commemorate average people—farmers, millers and midwives—who fought in the American Revolution. Like the banners mentioned above, the pedestals will appear throughout Arlington, offering residents the chance to place themselves on top of each pedestal and become contemporary monuments. Interacting with the pedestals allows us to imagine the lives of revolutionaries from 250 years ago and the choices they made. For our exhibition, photographer Asia Kepka has created a series of dramatic portraits of community activists and Arlington cultural leaders “stepping up” onto the pedestals and striking a pose.
Remembering history and preserving these stories for the future is an invaluable effort in our current political moment. The public art projects commemorating Arlington 250 aim to unite our community by sharing our local stories and bringing a much-needed revolutionary spirit into our modern lives.
Select Work from Untold Stories
About the Artists
Christopher Frost is a sculptor living and working in Somerville, Massachusetts. His work has been exhibited and collected in museums and art institutions throughout New England. His indoor and outdoor sculpture is part of many private and corporate collections. Frost began his education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine followed by Parsons School of Design in Paris, France. He received a Master’s degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Asia Kepka is a multimedia artist based in Arlington, Massachusetts. Shortly after leaving her home in Poland for the United States, Kepka discovered her passion for photography and graduated from the New England School of Photography. More recently, Kepka has shifted her creative focus to sustainability-driven fashion design, which she is currently studying at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Originally from Mumbai, Nilou Moochhala uses collage, typography, and assemblage to examine cross-cultural social and political narratives – be it in public street spaces or private art galleries. Moochhala has exhibited at galleries across the Northeast. In contrast, her large-scale public art projects have involved wheat-paste murals, street typography and printed forest installations. Moochhala is an award recipient of Massachusetts Cultural Council and New England Foundation for the Arts grants, and has served as a juror for the MCC and American Institute of Graphic Arts Boston. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, PBS, WBUR, Artscope, India New England and Art Outdoors.
Suzanne Moseley is an experimental artist, working in printmaking, cyanotype and sculptural formats. She often collaborates, recently with co-artist Liz Shepherd. Her work is in private collections, is often grant-funded and has been exhibited in the US and abroad. Her sculptures from repurposed materials, created with fellow artist Adrienne Shishko, have been featured in Fiber Art Now, The Boston Globe, and New Visionary Magazine. Her ability to work collaboratively garners its own attention, with invitations to discuss her experience, most recently at Berklee College of Music, Harvard Art Museum’s Maker Space and for an upcoming program on Newton Cable News.
Liz Shepherd produces large-scale sculptural installations, which bring to mind ideas about the earthly and the divine. She uses printmaking to enhance objects made of wood or paper. She also produces small, hand-pulled print editions. In the past 15 years she has exhibited in the United States and internationally. Shepherd’s work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Edinburgh College of Art, Syracuse University, Boston Children’s Hospital, the Hanoi (Vietnam) Contemporary Art Centre and the Bernard Zuckerman Museum of Art in Kennesaw, Georgia as well as numerous corporate and private collections. Originally from New York City, Shepherd now lives in Boston. She received her MFA in 2006 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, which awarded her the prestigious Traveling Fellowship in 2015.
About the Public Art Curator
Cecily Miller has served as the Public Art Curator for the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture for almost 10 years. In addition to her work in Arlington on diverse temporary/site-specific installations and murals in public spaces, she is an independent curator and a practicing artist. Cecily was the founding director of the Somerville Arts Council, where her work was recognized with state and national awards. She developed innovative exhibitions, events and educational programs at historic Forest Hills Cemetery where she led the nonprofit Educational Trust for 10 years. She served on the Cambridge Public Art Commission and her strong interest in activist art led her to create the Elm Street Activist Art Area while a member of the organizing committee for the HONK! Festival in Somerville. She has also collaborated with individual artists to support activist projects, including Cedric Douglas, Michelle Lougee and the art group of Extinction Rebellion.