Institute of Contemporary Art Boston history

1940 ICA-handlarnas Förbund is formed.

Plaut’s wartime activities (1942–46) include directing the Art Looting Investigation Unit, tasked with sorting and returning works of art pillaged by the Nazis.

The distinct scale of the “c” is a nod to the ICA’s original 1948 identity, when the museum changed its name to “Institute of Contemporary Art,” becoming the first in the United States to use “contemporary” in its moniker and firmly communicating its focus on art of the present.

A concurrent exhibition at the ICA, American Art Since 1950, celebrates the artists representing the United States in Venice: John Chamberlain, Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Morris Louis, Kenneth Nland, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella.

Thomas Messer is appointed director, serving in that position until 1962.

1964 The purchasing centres within ICA AB agreed on a common ICA symbol – today’s ICA logo.

Modern Works is the first survey to examine Roy Lichtenstein’s shift in 1965 from comics and caroons to canonical works of modernist art as sources for his imagery.

The ICA exhibited an early Infinity Mirror Room, now titled Endless Love Show, in the exhibition Multiplicity in 1966.

1972 The name of the purchasing centres is changed to ICA AB. ICA-handlarnas Förbund becomes the main shareholder in ICA AB.

Photographs, maps, and drawings document Christo and Jean-Claude’s Ocean Front (1974), their most recent public intervention.

The ICA returns to the couple’s oeuvre in 1979, organizing a major survey of their urban projects.

Stephen Prokopoff joins the ICA as director, serving in that position until 1982.

David Ross joins the ICA as director, serving in that position until 1990.

Prominent British artist Rachel Whiteread, recipient of the 1993 Turner Prize, receives her second United States museum survey.

Enterprise reflects the emergence of Relational Aesthetics (the term first coined in 1996), featuring work by Rikrit Tiravanija, and, in their first United States museum show, Vanessa Beecroft and Liam Gillick.

Milena Kalinovska joins the ICA as director, serving in that position until 1998.

With the announcement in 2000 that The Institute would be relocating to a state of the art building in the Fan Pier development on the South Shore of Boston and that it would begin to collect works that are not only contemporary but reflect the exhibition history of The Institute, Ms.

2001 ICA Bank’s operations are launched.

2004 In 2004 Canica sells its shares, after which ICA-förbundet Invest owns 40%.

Press Release dated November 17, 2005.

The ICA hosts Building Brave Spaces: Mobilizing Teen Arts Education, an unprecedented national gathering to reflect and build upon the knowledge and field-wide progress made in teen arts education since the establishment in 2008 of the ICA’s groundbreaking Teen Convenings.

2010 ICA launches Cura pharmacies and ICA To Go.

2012 ICA Bank expands its services to include mutual fund solutions.

2013 Hakon Invest acquires Ahold’s stake in ICA and the Group changes its name to ICA Gruppen.

The Group includes ICA Sweden and Rimi Baltic which mainly conduct grocery retail, ICA Real Estate which owns and manages properties, ICA Bank which offers financial services and, since January 2015, Apotek Hjärtat which conducts pharmacy operations.

Designed by Anmahian Winton Architects, the new space opened for its first season in June 2018, prompting the City of Boston to declare June 22 ICA Watershed Day.