09.22.2026
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Where’s Boston? 50 Years Later, this panel discussion examined the visual culture of the American Bicentennial and the evolving forms of public commemoration that emerged during the 1970s. Drawing on documentary photography and other artistic projects of the era, the conversation explored the shift from monumental civic expressions to more ephemeral, community-based approaches to design and celebration, situating Where’s Boston? within the broader visual and cultural landscape of the Bicentennial.
About the Speakers
Alexandra Lange is a Pulitzer Prize-winning design critic and author, most recently, of Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall. Her next book, to be published in Spring 2027, chronicles the DIY movement in the 1970s.
Chris Grimley is a designer, editor, and publisher based in Boston. He is principal of SIGNALS, agraphic design studio, and founder of SIGNALS Press, a design and culture imprint that explores creative legacies new and old, and the intersections between structure, space, and sound. His practice spans identity, wayfinding, and book design for cultural and institutional clients. He is a co-author of Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston.
Michael Kubo is Associate Professor of architectural history and theory at the Rhode Island School of Design. He is a co-author of Futures of the Architectural Exhibition, Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston, Imagining the Modern: Architecture and Urbanism of the Pittsburgh Renaissance, and OfficeUS Atlas.