Programming Picks Up at The WEM
Like other Boston museums that delayed new programming until after lockdowns had lifted, The WEM has been busy these past few months organizing and launching an eclectic mix of programming—from bicycle roller racing to a spooky reminiscence of one of the West End’s notorious neighborhood jails. As the Museum continues gearing up from a quiet pandemic period, more robust programming is being planned for the winter and spring of 2022.
October brought the Halloween spirit to Lomasney Way with Ghosts in the Museum, a historic talk about the Leverett Street Jail, which was located approximately where The WEM sits now and housed inmates from 1822-1851. Museum President Duane Lucia shared stories about some of Leverett Street’s infamous prisoners.
“Leverett Street Jail was the epicenter of some of the most contentious social and legal issues of the day,” Lucia said. You can read more about Ghosts in the Museum in the Beacon Hill Times.
In a nod to the neighborhood’s more than 120-year history as a center of bicycling, the WEM partnered with MassBike in September to launch the exhibit Cycling Legends of the West End, which will run through February. At the launch party, visitors enjoyed roller racing and other fun activities. Bikes Not Bombs, a Boston nonprofit that provides bicycles as a vehicle for social change, held a free bike tune-up day for Museum visitors on Oct. 22. Exhibit talks included stories about Kittie Knox, who broke color barriers in cycling in the late 1800s, and Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, the mother-of-three who set off on an around-the-world biking trip in 1894.
“Bicycling legends Knox and Kopchovsky lived in the West End during the progressive era, and in their own way, became activists for women’s equality,” Lucia said.
On Friday Nov. 12, The WEM will host its third annual Heritage Night, honoring Mass. State Rep. Jay Livingstone, Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok and Donald Zerendow, a famed West End healthcare attorney who was also instrumental in the founding of The WEM. He passed away in July 2021.
Livingstone and Bok are being celebrated for their work in the neighborhood.
“They’ve both taken the West End’s interests seriously and have provided support for The West End Museum as we work to preserve the history and memory of the neighborhood,” said Sebastian Belfanti, The WEM director.
People interested in attending Heritage Night can learn more here.
And then on Thursday, Nov. 18, The WEM will host a talk by urban planning expert Alex Krieger, the Research Professor in Practice of Urban Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His book, City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present, examines why Americans view cities as utopian spaces and how that understanding led to urban renewal in the 1950s. More details on Krieger’s talk can be found here.