2025 Seaport Art Walk Promises Another Must-See Summer Exhibition in New Bedford

Opening Night Guided Tour of the 2025 Seaport Art Walk
Promises Another Must-See Summer Evening in New Bedford

NEW BEDFORD, MA – The 2025 Seaport Art Walk officially opens on Thursday, July 10 with what has become one of New Bedford’s most eagerly anticipated summer traditions – a guided walking tour visiting the pieces that make up this outdoor public art installation with its featured artists. The tour launches at 6:30 p.m. from Tonnessen Park, nestled between State Pier to the south and Fisherman’s Wharf at City Pier 3 to the north, as part of AHA! New Bedford.

Now in its twelfth year, the Seaport Art Walk continues to highlight the city’s vibrant artistic community and deep historical legacy. This year’s theme, “Revolution/Evolution,” invites artists to explore how New Bedford has continually reshaped itself – through resistance, innovation, and the contributions of those whose stories are often overlooked.

Rooted in the ancestral lands and legacy of the Wampanoag peoples, New Bedford has long stood at the crossroads of revolutionary ideas and cultural transformation – from its central role in the abolitionist movement to its enduring influence on industry, civil rights, art, and science.

This year’s Seaport Art Walk showcases five new outdoor artworks that each explore different facets of that revolutionary spirit:

• Maya Bird-Murphy, working with students from Our Sisters’ School, presents Changemakers Club, a collaborative piece amplifying young voices poised to shape the future.
  
• Brooke Doherty introduces Convolution, an abstract exploration of transformation through complexity.
  
• Mandy Fraser unveils Dr. Marie Equi, honoring the radical life of a queer physician and labor rights activist born in New Bedford.
• Ed McAloon contributes Weaving a Community, a piece reflecting the interdependence that defines a thriving city.
• Jill Strait offers Mary “Polly” Johnson’s Herb Garden Quilt Mural, celebrating a freedom seeker’s legacy through a vibrant textile-inspired garden design.

Also returning to the walk are two powerful installations from past years that resonate strongly with this year’s theme:

• Donna Dodson’s Moby Dick (2015), revisiting the legendary whale through a sculptural lens of myth, survival, and story.
• Eric Lintala’s Memories Carried On A Wing, Homage to The Wampanoag Nation (2023), which honors the resilience and continuity of Indigenous culture.

In a new and exciting addition for 2025, the Seaport Art Walk will also feature large-scale photography panels displaying work by five local artists whose practices reflect revolutionary themes in their own right: Beatrice Alder, Ben Berke, Paula Robinson Deare, Adrian Tió, and Zachary White.

Together, these artists trace New Bedford’s revolutionary evolution – from the pioneering efforts of figures like Massasoit Ousamequin and Lewis Temple to the enduring impact of Mary “Polly” Johnson, Frederick Douglass, and many more whose ideas and sacrifices continue to shape the city’s future even as it defines its past.

The Seaport Art Walk is free and open to the public with artworks located along the waterfront throughout the Seaport Cultural District. The project is presented by New Bedford Creative at the New Bedford Economic Development Council  in partnership with the Massachusetts Design, Art, & Technology Institute (DATMA), the City of New Bedford, and a host of cultural leaders.

The Seaport Art Walk is supported in part by the City of New Bedford’s Arts, Culture, and Tourism Fund, a grant from the New Bedford Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, with additional support from Barr Foundation and Bristol County Savings Bank.

Mark your calendar now for the Seaport Art Walk Opening Night Artist Tour on Thursday, July 10 at 6:30 p.m., kicking off at Tonnessen Park, home to the Fishermen’s Tribute Monument. This is your can’t-miss chance to walk the Seaport Art Walk alongside the artists themselves and hear the powerful stories behind their work—live, in their own words—as they bring this year’s theme, “Revolution/Evolution,” vividly to life.

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