A roaming dance, a sound tour, poems honoring the Vodou death spirit Ghede and an experimental film made with plants and soil are coming to Mount Auburn Cemetery from its newly named artists-in-residence class. The four artists and organizations chosen by the Friends of Mount Auburn, announced Wednesday, will work on original, site-specific projects inspired by being on the grounds for the coming 12 months.
The cemetery was the first in the United States to establish an artist residency, and the latest year brought 145 artist applications – a record – for the program’s 11th year, Friends of Mount Auburn said.
The first artist-in-residence was filmmaker and multimedia artist Roberto Mighty. His films (which can be viewed online) debuted at the cemetery in November 2016 at Story Chapel as a multimedia experience. “His work set the bar high for the quality of art that could be produced inspired by an in-depth experiences at Mount Auburn,” said Jessica Bussmann, the cemetery’s director of education and visitor services.
Some of the works since 2014 that have resonated most powerfully with visitors, Bussmann said, included the concerts of composer Mary Bichner, the second artist-in-residence. “She performed two sold-out concerts in addition to recording the ‘Mount Auburn Spring & Autumn Suites’ with a 19-piece chamber orchestra,” works that live on online. “We have invited her back several times to perform – including this coming September.”
“Dance also continues to be a powerful art form that resonates with our audiences,” Bussmann said, pointing to choreographers Jennifer Lin in 2021, Liz Walker in 2022, Swati Biswas in 2023 and Lonnie Stanton in 2024. “Witnessing site-specific dance performance in the landscape is an evocative way to learn the stories and traditions of the people buried at Mount Auburn. But all 38 of our past and current artists have connected with visitors in their own unique way of interpreting and sharing their art.”
Artists typically hold public events during their year, but the new class is just starting its time at Mount Auburn, and “early months are dedicated to research and experimentation that leads to the final work,” Bussmann said. A calendar is being set for when the public can enjoy the current class’ works:
Detritus Dance
Founded in 2021 by Caroline Bradbury and Claire Lane and focused on feminist storytelling (its “Malefica,” a work on the history of witches, was performed June 8 in Salem) through contemporary dance, collage and text.
The project: A roaming dance performance that interweaves the stories of women buried in Mount Auburn – writer Margaret Fuller Ossoli; poet Maria White Lowell; actor Charlotte Cushman; and sculptor Edmonia Lewis – and inspired by Ossoli’s “Conversations,” gatherings of Bostonian women held 1839-1840 to learn about history, mythology and the literary arts.
Sara Jordenö
Artist, filmmaker, writer. Jordenö’s nonfiction and experimental film and public art have been presented internationally, including at the 60th Venice Biennale, MoMA PS1 and Kunsthal Charlottenborg.
The project: An experimental 16 mm film called “Repose (Our Ashes Mixed)” that takes as its starting point a joint headstone in the cemetery for Anne Whitney and Abby Manning. Manning died in 1906, and Whitney in 1915 after 40 years of what was called at the time a “Boston marriage.” From there, Jordenö researches Whitney’s papers at Wellesley College, including letters between Whitney and Manning, and interviews people from a range of communities, including people of trans and nonbinary experiences, to address a fear of many LGBTQ people: being erased, misnamed or rewritten after death. A final element to the work is taking plants, soil and other natural matter gathered at Mount Auburn and applying them directly to the filmstrip’s emulsion.
Lenelle Moïse
Playwright and poet. Inspired by jazz, nature-based spirituality, queer liberation and memory, Moïse created the 2023 play “K-I-S-S-I-N-G” at the Huntington Theatre in Boston and the Off-Broadway two-woman musical “Expatriate” in 2008.
The project: Original poems honoring Ghede, the giddy spirit of death in the Vodou religion, that will be filmed and shown with the also site-specific short film “On Human Rites.”
Jacek Smolicki
Interdisciplinary artist. Smolicki produces sound art from Walden Pond to the Arctic Circle, and his soundscape compositions and installations have been presented internationally. He edited “Soundwalking: Through Time, Space and Technologies,” published by Routledge in 2023, and is this year’s Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he works on sonic aspects of urban design.
The project: An immersive “soundwalk” through Mount Auburn, an auditory guide that accompanies visitors as they walk, encouraging attentive listening. Sounds will be recorded onsite, combined with storytelling informed by archival and historical research, memories shared by people who care for and work within the cemetery, and poetic reflections developed during extended soundscape explorations of the site.
This post was updated April 13, 2026, with remarks by Jessica Bussmann.
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