The semiquincentennial of the American Revolution is an exciting opportunity for the nation to reflect on and commemorate key historical milestones and figures of our founding – perhaps nowhere more so than in Concord and along the Battle Road. Fifty years ago, Concord marked the bicentennial with grand parades, balls, battle reenactments and dignitary visits celebrating revolutionary leaders, legendary midnight rides, and “the shot heard round the world.”

In 2025, the lively Concord250 Arts, Literature, and Music Subcommittee is looking to the arts to bring fresh and expanded perspectives to local history, elevate lesser-told stories, and look ahead to the “next 250.” From Liz Helfer’s Freedom’s Silhouette interactive sculpture recently installed in Monument Square to newly commissioned musical compositions and more, local artists and cultural organizations are creatively re-examining history and bringing it into the now.

The Concord Museum will mark the semiquincentennial with a comprehensive series of 250th special exhibitions beginning with Whose Revolution, highlighting the competing and contradictory meanings of revolution during the period leading up to the war. It will examine the underrepresented experiences of Loyalists, as well as enslaved people and Indigenous communities, to examine questions of liberty, sovereignty, and protest during the period – “revealing how the idea of declaring independence from England was far from inevitable.”

Several projects by The Umbrella Arts Center also seek to reexamine and broaden our understanding of colonial and revolutionary life through art. The New England premiere of Where We Belong (2/28-3/23) by Indigenous theater-maker Madeline Sayet follows her journey to pursue a PhD in Shakespeare in England, in the footsteps of Mohegan ancestors who traveled as ambassadors in the 1700s to help her people. Planned community engagement activities will also highlight art and experiences of Concord’s native Nipmuc and Massachusett tribes, including a concurrent exhibition of work by Nipmuc photographer Scott Strong Hawk Foster.

Recreated life-sized slave cabin from artist Ifé Franklin’s Indigo Project

| ©Wayne Lake

Another collaboration of The Umbrella with Walden Woods Project and The Robbins House is Weaving an Address, an ambitious indoor/outdoor art installation featuring site-specific work based on lives of former Black inhabitants of Walden Woods. Curated by artist Marla McLeod, a host of prominent Black artists including Ifé Franklin, Ekua Holmes, Stephen Hamilton, and others will install work in both The Umbrella’s Allie Kussin Gallery and outdoors on historic Brister’s Hill, named for formerly enslaved Revolutionary War veteran Brister Freeman.

Also at The Umbrella, Concord250 and Concord DEI will present an arts-oriented event Honoring Patriots of Color on March 15 with the Town of Concord, Minute Man National Historical Park, and MA250, and premiere the documentary film, Concord’s Secret History, with talkbacks on April 12 and April 14.

And on May 17, The Umbrella will screen a trilogy of films by the Tufts University Half the History Film Project focused on local historical women. These include Margaret Lothrop and the Wayside (premiere screening with new score), a return engagement of Ellen Garrison: Scenes from an Activist’s Life, and the world premiere of Women of the Old Manse.

These and other programs attempt to artistically recognize and honor the contributions of all the individuals who built this country, and imagine, as U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission Chair Rosie Rios urges, “what the next 250 years might look like for our children and the generations to come.”