BOSTON, MASS.- Big Plans: Picturing Social Reform, an exhibition examining how landscape architects and photographers in the late 1800s and early 1900s advocated for social reform in Boston, New York, and Chicago, opened at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Using city plans, archival materials, historical maps, and photographs, the exhibition invites visitors to see how photographers and landscape architects of the past advocated for social reform, and explore how their work speaks to the urban challenges of our time. The exhibition runs from June 20 to Sept. 15.

Frederick Law Olmsted, the founder of landscape architecture, sought to edify and improve life circumstances through public parks, such as Central Park in New York and The Back Bay Fens in Boston. Similar to Olmsted, Isabella Stewart Gardner built her Museum with a public purpose, believing that access to art would have a powerful and positive impact on the life of the city and the nation. Many of the urban changes that took place during Gardner’s time helped shape Boston into the city it is today. Through the exhibition, its interpretive materials, and long-format video, visitors will be able to imagine the Boston of Gardner’s time, while drawing connections to contemporary issues of historic and environmental preservation, social justice, and economic inequality that shape the city today.

“Revisiting the origins of landscape architecture and city planning in relation is particularly timely as we confront increasingly contested images of our collective urban futures,” said Charles Waldheim, the Museum’s Ruettgers Curator of Landscape. “Literally built upon Olmsted’s design of The Fens in Boston’s Back Bay, the Gardner Museum is a perfect venue for this exhibition, which comes at a crucial time as we reconsider progressive urban visions in the context of economic, ecological, and societal change.”

“There are parallels between the influence of these historical photos and images from the turn of the century, and the power images have today in their ability to be captured and shared ubiquitously,” said Sara Zewde, assistant curator of Big Plans. “Sharing these images is a form of reporting on important issues, and amplifies their potential to prompt change, both then and now.”

Audiences will also be invited to consider the role of urban landscape in their own lives, including how sharing images of parks on social media contributes to the shared history of public spaces.

Supporting programming will work closely with artists and youth leaders in the Boston community. The Map This project will coincide with the exhibition and bring together Neighborhood Salon Luminary artist Nathalia JMag, local youth-serving partner organizations, and engineering students from Olin College to consider Big Plans through a series of workshops exploring “alternative maps” as a way of interpreting and reinterpreting Boston communities.

“By building her Museum here, Isabella was one of the first to see the potential of The Fens for what it could be,” said Peggy Fogelman, the Norma Jean Calderwood Director. “Big Plans brings this part of her legacy and the historical context of landscape architecture into the present day. It’s an opportunity for us to admire the beauty and foresight of these parks and public spaces while considering who they impact and how they connect us to one another.”