Submit a pitch for Un-monument

Overview

Boston Art Review (BAR) is inviting writers/creatives to submit ideas for works that respond to five broad inquiries (below). You may submit up to two pitches. Please submit pitches separately using the form boxes below. 

BAR welcomes responses that take unexpected and innovative forms and hopes to commission a range of narrative works including (but not limited to): creative nonfiction, reported features, interviews, profiles, photo essays, experimental writing, critical and academic essays, comics and illustrations, and poetry.

 
All published pieces will be added to our existing dedicated Un-monument webpage, where articles will be free for all to read. A selection of pieces may also appear in print or in other related publications. All contributors will be notified and consulted prior to the publication of work. 

DEADLINES

Submission deadline is July 6, 2026. Early submissions are encouraged; pitches will be considered as they are received.

Draft, revision, and publishing deadlines will be communicated directly with each contributor. 

Due to project constraints, not all of those who submit interest will receive an invitation to contribute to the project. 

Interested in engaging but unable to take on a long-form submission? Please contribute to our Community Voices Questionnaire and share your thoughts in fewer than 150 words. All voices welcome!

Writer location will be a consideration for potential assignment but not a determinant for eligibility. All writers from the Greater Boston area and beyond are welcome to apply.

Inquiry #1: What makes a monument different from other acts of commemoration, and does it require permanence, visibility, or public recognition?

Monuments have traditionally been understood as permanent/fixed objects dedicated to specific histories, events, or individuals. Other forms of commemorative practices challenge those rigid boundaries. Rituals, gatherings, performances, archives, landscapes, and acts of collective care all complicate conventional ideas of monumentality and public memory. This inquiry invites you to consider how definitions of monuments continue to evolve and to imagine what forms commemoration might take beyond the monumental object itself.

Inquiry #2: Whose stories become visible through public remembrance, and how do those stories influence our understanding of belonging and place?

Acts of public commemoration often seek to create shared histories and identities. Yet the stories elevated in civic spaces also influence who feels recognized, represented, and included within those narratives. In Boston, histories of Indigenous sovereignty, colonialism, migration, displacement, and segregation are not evenly represented through commemorative actions. This inquiry invites you to examine how public memory shapes understandings of place and belonging by determining which histories become visible and which remain absent.

Inquiry #3: What legacies are embedded in the sites, lands, materials, and resources that shape and inform commemorative practices?

Neighborhoods, landscapes, and public spaces carry the legacies of those who have lived in them, cared for them, or transformed them over time. The materials that make up our built environment likewise hold histories of labor, stewardship, extraction, and exchange. This inquiry invites you to consider how land, location, and material composition influence the ways we remember and commemorate.

Inquiry #4: How do institutions, philanthropy, public funding, and bureaucratic systems frame civic memory and influence participation in cultural decision-making? 

Public memory is shaped not only by artists and communities, but also by governance systems, funding structures, and institutional and political priorities. Decisions about what actions,ideas, or individuals are commemorated, where monuments are placed, and whose histories receive visibility are closely tied to systems of power and access. This inquiry invites you to examine the monetary, institutional, and political frameworks that influence monument-making, representation, accessibility, and audience and explore how civic memory is negotiated within public space.

Inquiry #5: What would it look like for communities to collectively build commemorative landscapes that reflect diverse (or even conflicting) perspectives, encourage civic participation, and imagine shared futures? 

Monuments do not only preserve the past—they also project ideas about the future. Contemporary commemorative practices increasingly ask how public memory might support civic participation, collective care, and shared visions for what communities could become. This inquiry invites you to consider how monument-making can function as a tool for imagining new social, political, and cultural possibilities.

You may submit up to two pitches. Please submit pitches separately using the form boxes below.