Below is the final list of nominees for our Worst Public Art in New England project. We’re looking for a handful of people to help us boil them down into a ballot for a big public online vote to determine the very worst one. If you’re interested in helping us cull the nominees, please e-mail us a brief note explaining why your expertise prepares you to be the worst ballot culler. Note: All people helping us choose nominees for the ballot must agree to be publicly named.
= Robert Shure’s 1998 Boston Irish Famine Memorial (pictured above). Additional nominations: two, three, four, five, six (see comments), and seven (see comments).
= Buster Simpson’s granite seats at Downtown Crossing T stop form 1987.
= Bronze of Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens from the 1960s TV show “Bewitched” in Salem, Massachusetts, 2005, which was commissioned by TV Land cable network from StudioEIS in Brooklyn.
= Mosaic sculptures in Newton Centre, Massachusetts.
= Charles Y. Harvey’s 1912 “Burnside Fountain” in Worcester.
= Stanley Saitowitz’s 1995 New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston.
= Bruce Papitto’s 2000 bronze sculpture “The Patriot” in Bedford, Massachusetts.
= Be Sargent’s 1999 “A Wall of Respect for Animals” mural along McGrath Highway in Cambridge.
= Anything made by children.
= Shelter at the North Main Street trolley tunnel in Providence.
= Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles’s 1969 Boston City Hall.
= James Tyler’s 1980 “Ten Figures,” cast cement, masked figures in Davis Square, Somerville. More here (see comments).
= Harold Connolly Memorial in Brighton, outside old Taft School, Boston.
= Toshihiro Katayama’s installation of boulders, black and white graphic panels, and so on at Porter Square, Cambridge.
= Laura Baring-Gould’s Clapp pear in Everett Square (Mass Ave and Columbia Road) in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.
= Shauna Gillies-Smith’s “Tracing the Fore” in Boothbay Square in Portland.
= Jaime Gili’s oil storage tanks in South Portland for the Maine Center of Creativity.
= Flight of birds for Martin Luther King Jr. at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel.
= Bela Pratt’s “Art” and “Science” allegorical figures in front of the Boston Public Library.
= Cyrus Dallin’s “Appeal to the Great Spirit” in front of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
= Deborah Butterfield’s “Paint and Henry” horses outside Copley Mall entrance on Dartmouth Street in Boston.
= Andrzej P. Pitynski’s 1979 “Partisans” (aka “Polish Riders”) formerly on Boston Common.
= Donna Vayo’s Green Street Bridge mural in Worcester, Massachusetts.
= Robert Ellison’s 1998 “Time Wave” clock on Washington Street, Providence. A bit more.
= Maurice Harron’s Irish Famine Memorial (see bottom) on Cambridge Common.
= Mark di Suvero’s 1984 “Huru” at UMass Boston.
= Ralph Helmick’s praying hands (see comments) at Park Street T Station, Boston.
= Wayland’s Whale mural (see comments) off Route 93 in Boston’s South End.
= Luis Jimenez, “Legartos” (see comments) alligators at UMass Boston.
= Antonio Lopez Garcia’s 2008 “Day and Night” (see comments) baby heads outside Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
= Mayor Patrick Collins Memorial (see comments) at Boston City Hall. More here.
= Checkerboard (see comments) in front of the gates of Boston’s Chinatown.
= Susumu Shingu’s 1983 “Gift of the Wind” (see comments) in Porter Square, Cambridge.
= Krzysztof Wodiczko’s 2010 LED light installation at the Cambridge Police Headquarters.
= Bronze nude in front of Prudential Center, Boston.
= Mags Harries’s 1984 “Glove Cycle” (see comments) at the Porter Square T station in Cambridge.
= Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial (see comments) from 2004 at Massachusetts State House. More here.
= Mico Kaufman’s 2006 “The Spirit of Marathon” statue (see comments) in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. More here.
= Fisherman statue (see comments) in Eastport, Maine. More here.
= “That ugly pile of junk next to the Kenedy Builing in government square” in Boston.
= Michael J. Saari’s giant pair of eyeglasses (see comments) in Southbridge, Massachusetts. More here.
= “Two polished steel ‘laptop computers’ (see comments) on the Boston Waterfront, located between the Aquarium and International place.”
= Sculpture at the entrance to BU (see comments) from Storrow drive (eastbound).
= “Every fiberglass decorated cow, moose, bear, codfish or what-have you” (see comments).
= “Sea Flower” (see comments) on the steps of the Federal Building in downtown New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The 2002 Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge (see comments) in Boston. More here.
= Louise Nevelson’s 1975 “Transparent Horizons” at MIT in Cambridge. More here.
= Beverly Pepper’s 1971 “Sudden Presence” at New Chardon and Congress streets in Boston. More here.
Disqualified nomination:
= Richard Serra’s 1981 “Tilted Arc” in New York.
Photo by The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research.