February 11, 2026 – July 2026

Vessels of Slavery: Forget Me Not is a collaborative multi-year project designed to transform how a town understands its history. The project work began in 2022 and debuted at the Cape Ann Museum Green in Gloucester, MA for a two-week outdoor installation in 2024.

Through this project, artists and collaborators IlaSahai Prouty, Susi Ryan, and Christle Rawlins-Jackson seek to bring light to, and honor, enslaved and freed people on the Eastern seaboard. Archival research lays the groundwork for an installation that speaks to the conditions, location, and history of slavery.

Over the course of four residencies at the Manship Artist Residency, the collaborating artists spoke with people in the community, conducted archival research, and offered public engagements, which culminated in an outdoor exhibit and celebration.

Now the project has become a traveling exhibition through the generous support of another Mass Humanities grant. While on view at the Lynn Museum & Arts Center, research will be conducted to look at Lynn’s history of enslaved and free people.