Sitting With the Work: Curating Attaché at BCA and the Power of Listening
By: Meclina Gomes
In October 2025, I began my role as Visiting Curator at the Boston Center for the Arts. Over the months that followed, I had the rare and deeply meaningful opportunity to meet one-on-one with more than twenty visual artists inside their individual studios. These were not surface-level conversations. We talked about timelines and turning points. About successes, challenges, and the moments that almost caused them to stop. We spoke about dreams—both realized and still quietly forming. What emerged through these interviews was a profound appreciation for the practice of art itself and for the extraordinary creative minds shaping Boston’s visual arts landscape.
Each artist carries with them a wealth of history, lineage, and culture—threads that are woven directly into their work. Their practices are not isolated gestures; they are living archives, shaped by personal experience and collective memory, while also looking forward toward legacy, community-building, and the sustainability of their creative economy. To witness how each artist navigates the future and how they imagine impact, continuity, and care has been both humbling and deeply nourishing. This work feeds my soul. Through these intentional dialogues, I began to see not only individual journeys, but a larger story unfolding: what is happening collectively within Boston’s visual arts ecosystem, and how those shifts ripple outward beyond the city. Creation and storytelling are foundational fibers in the civic fabric—embedded in place-making, economic development, and creative economies. Artists do not simply reflect culture; they actively shape it. It is from this place of listening and relationship-building that Attaché was born.
Opening in April at BCA’s Mills Gallery, Attaché invites viewers into more than a visual experience. Alongside stunning works of art, audiences will have the opportunity to go behind the canvas—to learn about each artist’s practice, their goals and accomplishments, and the visions they are holding for the future. The exhibition is rooted in connection, exchange, and relational presence, offering space to slow down and engage more deeply with the people behind the work. My hope is that Attaché serves as a sounding board: a place where new opportunities can emerge, alignment within the artist community can strengthen, and meaningful conversations can continue between artists, institutions, and the public. It is an offering that honors both individuality and collective momentum.
This curatorial work is inseparable from my role as founder of Community Art Collaborative (CAC). CAC exists to illuminate the stories of creatives and to position art as a healing modality that fosters reflection, dialogue, and connection for individuals and communities alike. Whether through public art, community-based programming, or institutional exhibitions, the mission remains the same: to create spaces where stories are seen, voices are honored, and art becomes a catalyst for healing and conversation. At its core, Attaché is an extension of that mission. It is a reminder that when we take the time to listen to artists, to histories, to futures-in-the-making we strengthen not only our creative communities, but the collective fabric that holds us all.
“Meclina Gomes is an artist, curator, and nonprofit leader whose work centers art as a catalyst for healing, connection, and community dialogue. She is the co-founder of Community Art Collaborative (CAC), a nonprofit established in 2021 to facilitate public art programs that support individual and collective well-being. Her curatorial practice includes Attaché at the Boston Center for the Arts’ Mills Gallery (April 2026), where she brings her community-rooted approach into institutional spaces. Across all her work, Gomes creates environments that invite presence, reflection, and shared humanity. “
