Boston 400 is a long-horizon cultural framework marking the city’s 400th anniversary from 1630 to 2030, designed to rethink how Boston tells its own story. Rather than centering official milestones or heroic myths, it approaches the city as a layered, living system—shaped by migration, invention, resistance, music, labor, and conflict. History here is treated not as a finished narrative but as raw material, open to reinterpretation and remix.
At the core of this effort is the David Bieber Archives, an expansive and continually growing collection of photographs, recordings, ephemera, writing, and firsthand documentation spanning decades of Boston cultural life. The archive functions as an endless source of content—fueling exhibitions, publications, installations, broadcasts, and digital experiences—allowing Boston 400 to draw directly from lived history rather than retrospective mythmaking. Each artifact becomes a point of entry, linking past moments to contemporary questions.
Boston 400 is ultimately future-facing. By activating the David Bieber Archives alongside new creative work, the project asks what a 400-year-old city owes its next century—and how culture can operate as both memory and momentum. The goal is not commemoration alone, but continuity: a living framework where Boston’s past remains active, generative, and unfinished as the city moves forward.
