FPAC In The Press
Portraits on display at ‘Artists of Tomorrow’ with ‘Inflame’ by Hannah on the far left.
Vibrant portraits line the walls of Fort Point Arts Community’s art space in South Boston. Located on the scenic waterfront, the “Artists of Tomorrow” exhibition brought together FPAC and Artists for Humanity to give artistic voices to young people.
Christine Vaillancourt, the FPAC President and Executive Director, expressed her excitement at the collaboration.
“We were thrilled by the idea of showcasing AFH’s talented young artists in our beautiful waterfront space as we deeply admire their mission,” said Vaillancourt.
AFH is a nonprofit organization that works to provide under-resourced teens with paid, professional art and design employment. This exhibit was part of an ongoing celebration of its 35th anniversary.
“Artists of Tomorrow” showcased portraits painted by teen artists in the AFH program from recent years.
“Each portrait stands as a testament to creative growth, personal exploration and the power of opportunity,” a panel on display at the exhibit read.
Vaillancourt noted how this exhibit benefited both FPAC and AFH.
“FPAC values collaborations with fellow local nonprofits, believing that by supporting one another, we can share ideas, inspire creativity and continue learning,” said Vaillancourt.
One portrait, “Inflame” by Hannah, used acrylic on canvas to express a strong side profile of a Black woman surrounded by burning candles. The artist used cool tones to depict the figure, which contrasted with the strong red background and bright yellow candles.
“Each portrait stands as a testament to creative growth, personal exploration and the power of opportunity,” the exhibit description read.
FPAC President Christine Vaillancourt
September 19, 2025
By Brendon Cassidy
On warm Friday nights in the 1980’s a group would gather in the Fort Point neighborhood for a game of kickball that would last all night until sunrise. The group would talk, laugh and light off fireworks for the duration of the night because there was nobody around to say they couldn’t.
The group all shared something in common, a love for creating art.
“The only people here were artists,” said Don Eyles, longtime member of the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC). “There was a lack of amenities and a great deal of freedom.”
Eyles remembers having to walk from Fort Point to South Station to find the nearest place he could pick up a newspaper.
Artscope Online: March/April 2025
A CLIMATE CRISIS REFRAMED
ART AND DATA CONVERGE TO RETHINK OUR FUTURE
by Sonia Richter
“Crisis” is a powerful word, and whoever paired it with “climate” knew precisely what they were doing. For many young Americans, including myself, the term conjures up images of burning forests, melting ice caps and record-breaking hurricanes. However, “the ShowRoom” — the current exhibit at the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC) Art Space — acknowledges this dire line of thought without parading its urgency, offering a perspective on the ecofuture that is both accessible and utilitarian.
The exhibition features the work of five artists who depict the world in its current state without hyperbole or shying away from difficult realities. The result is playful, thoughtful and practical. They illustrate real-world data, model abstract solutions to water scarcity and illustrate the power of community. They furnish spaces with formerly rust-laden metal and encourage children to help reveal changing temperatures. These stories are tangible and rational. But their emotional resonance? That’s for us, the viewers, to discover.
Modeled around an old couture showroom — and with a similar allure, curator Cori Champagne envisions the waterfront gallery as a setting where aspirations toward a better future are within reach: “I think artists are really uniquely positioned in that they’re able to make visible very complicated things … these small actions are seemingly disparate, but in this setting, that vision is much more cohesive than some abstract, large-scale solution,” Champagne said.
THE TICKET
Things to do around Boston this weekend and beyond
ByUpdated February 5, 2025, 11:52 a.m.
ALMOST SOMEWHERE: VAGUE RECOLLECTIONS OF A PLACE I MIGHT HAVE BEEN Some people have granular memories of a cherished place. Others recollect more by how they felt when they were there. In this show, 14 artists offer work that blends razor-sharp details with image, tone, and form that defies specificity. In effect, these pieces stir up the idylls and shadows of imagined places, resonant with different meanings for each viewer. Through March 30. Gallery at Atlantic Wharf, 290 Congress St.
CATE McQUAID
Visual Art/Design Commentary: Floating Art in Fort Point Channel — See Worthy Public Art With a Conscience
By Mark Favermann
Almost immediately, this now quarter-century-old program proved to be a wonderful merger of art and environment, creativity and nature.
Today, a proliferation of exhibits and projects are taking on the topic of our damaged natural environment and the human suffering it causes. But long before conventional arts institutions decided to pay lip service to environmental concerns, Boston’s Fort Point Channel Arts Community (FPAC) was out front on the issue, creatively exploring the dire ramifications that will inevitably follow impending environmental degradation.
Beginning in the late ’90s, Boston Children’s Museum experimented with temporary “floating art” sculptural objects, setting several pieces out on the water for a month at a time. This innovative action set the template for the creation of work that — intermittently over the last quarter of a century — was inspired by our forebodings about a deteriorating environment and a society that was indifferent to this reality.
Red all over
“As I See It,” a weekly photo column by Pulitzer Prize winner Stan Grossfeld, brings the stories of New England to Globe readers.
By Globe Staff,Updated July 29, 2024, 4:46 p.m
Allyssa Del Vecchio, program director at Fort Point Artists Community, sits in front of Miriam Bucheli’s “Love, Roses & Peace” which celebrates the rose as a timeless symbol of love amid echoes of past conflicts in Spain. “I think the color red means fiery passion. Red is very bold. It’s a very commanding color,” said Del Vecchio.
STAN GROSSFELD/GLOBE STAFF
Full Article
17 PRINTMAKERS, PAINTERS & SCULPTORS ARE (UN)CONFINED AT FORT POINT ARTS COMMUNITY GALLERY
At first I was haunted by a distinct feeling of confinement as I entered the just installed exhibition “(un)confined: The Artists of Shepherd & Maudsleigh Studio” at the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC) Gallery at 300 Summer Street in the Fort Point District.
And then I realized that just going indoors and down the stairs to an interior courtyard opening onto a modestly sized gallery meant leaving the expansive skyline and sloshing green seas, the industrial era bridges and the brick and stone buildings all gilded with the spring sunshine of Boston’s waterfront.
BEST OF BOSTON
2020 Best Art Gallery
Fort Point Arts Community
Meg Gugarty
Boston Magazine
Pricey condos and global corporations may now dominate the Fort Point landscape, but this nonprofit’s commitment to the neighborhood’s long-standing arts scene remains just as strong as the day it was founded in 1980. With some 250 virtuosos producing the paintings, photography, and sculpture shown in its various galleries, the space (pictured) is a cornucopia of the city’s finest art. And in a time of social distancing, FPAC has stayed active with an art-lending program and public pieces, including floating installations in Fort Point Channel itself. Fort Point, fortpointarts.org.
Floating sheep artwork hits
Fort Point Channel
By Globe Staff,October 6, 2015, 6:34 p.m.
“Who Wears Wool” by artist Hilary Zelson, in Boston Harbor.
KEITH BEDFORD/GLOBE STAFF
Not Baaa-d, Fort Point Channel. Not baaa-d at all.
A new art display now floating in the murky Boston Harbor waters between the Congress and Summer street bridges will be hard for anyone to miss: it features two large sheep built entirely from foam and packing peanuts.
The installation, called “Who Wears Wool,” was created by artist Hilary Zelson, and pays homage to the Fort Point area’s former wool trade. It consists of the two sheep resting atop a 12-foot-by-12-foot artificial turf-covered floating dock.
The larger sheep is 10 feet tall and 14 feet long. The smaller sheep stands 5 feet tall.
“Hilary’s project is fantastic,” said Emily O’Neil, executive director of the Fort Point Arts Community, or FPAC, the non-profit that commissioned the work. “It’s large-scale, yet has tremendous detail.”
