A community member painting a fish at a local workshop.
This spring ArtsArlington partnered with the Mystic River Watershed Association to create a participatory mural project which utilizes the creativity of our local community to celebrate the return of the herring to the Mystic River. The project, called Go Fish!, involved community members painting 2,000 fish, which have been installed in groups on storefronts in Arlington for the public to discover and appreciate.
Every spring, a major migration moves through the heart of Greater Boston, invisible to most people. From early April through June, more than 500,000 river herring from the Atlantic Ocean return to the Mystic River, where they were born.
Over the past several years, this herring population has gone from endangered to robust thanks to a combination of government protection, nonprofit organization initiatives and volunteer efforts. Since 2012, the number of herring that make their annual voyage from Boston Harbor up the Mystic River to spawn has more than tripled – from 200,000 to 640,000 in 2024!
13FOREST has enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership with ArtsArlington, and as a part of this project we are hosting an event at the gallery on Saturday June 13 from 4-6 pm to celebrate the herring installation on the Edith M. Fox Library, which includes fish made by our 13FOREST artists. To mark the occasion, Public Art Curator Cecily Miller will provide some insight into how she developed this project, and then local poets Terry Carter and Steve Rapp will present poems inspired by our local waterways.
Painted herring ready to be added to a mural.
About the Poets
Terry E. Carter is a gifted writer, poet and speaker who has been writing and developing his craft for decades. He is a classically-trained poet whose literary influences range from Shakespeare to the Harlem Renaissance. Carter is a sought-after poet and presenter on a variety of topics related to Black history, faith and contemporary culture. He has published six volumes of poetry, including his latest book, Brown Skin and the Brilliant Sun: A Poet’s Opus, released in October 2025. Carter was named the inaugural Poet Laureate of Medford, Mass. in the summer of 2021 and completed his term at the end of June 2023. Carter is an ordained pastor and ministry leader at Jubilee Christian Church of Stoughton. He directs Elder Services and Special Programs at the West Medford Community Center and is married to Terésa Carter, an ordained pastor and liturgical dance leader.
Steve Rapp was raised in Massachusetts and has been a resident of Arlington since 2021. He is an environmental engineer, former Peace Corps volunteer (Benin 1986 - 1988) and yoga teacher. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications including Aleph Bet Yoga, The American Diversity Report, Silver Blade and most recently in The Silver Note: Poets of Arlington, Massachusetts. Rapp is a member of the New England Poetry Club and one of the Beehive Poets in Arlington. Since 2023, Rapp has organized a monthly poetry reading and open mic at the Robbins Library.
About the Public Art Curator
Cecily Miller has served as the Public Art Curator for the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture for almost 10 years. In addition to her work in Arlington on diverse temporary/site-specific installations and murals in public spaces, she is an independent curator and a practicing artist. Cecily was the founding director of the Somerville Arts Council, where her work was recognized with state and national awards. She developed innovative exhibitions, events and educational programs at historic Forest Hills Cemetery where she led the nonprofit Educational Trust for 10 years. She served on the Cambridge Public Art Commission and her strong interest in activist art led her to create the Elm Street Activist Art Area while a member of the organizing committee for the HONK! Festival in Somerville. She has also collaborated with individual artists to support activist projects including Cedric Douglas, Michelle Lougee and the art group Extinction Rebellion.