Please join us on Thursday, September 24^th at 5:30pm at 10 Blaney St, Salem MA for the dedication of the installation of Traces of Arrival. This event marks a significant addition to Salem’s public art landscape and serves as a lasting tribute to the city’s past, present, and future as part of the Salem 400+ celebrations.

The selected work, Traces of Arrival by artist Roark T. Congdon, is a striking sculptural installation that draws inspiration from historic navigation charts and spatial systems used to understand Salem Harbor and its global maritime connections. The piece reinterprets these cartographic forms into a three-dimensional structure, translating movement, orientation, and arrival into a geometric framework anchored within the harbor landscape.

Rooted in extensive historical research, including sources such as Salem’s Centuries, Salem Then and Now, This Land Is Their Land, and Maritime History of Massachusetts, Traces of Arrival reflects the intersecting forces that have shaped Salem over time. Indigenous pathways, colonial expansion, and global trade routes are expressed through intersecting planes of weathering steel, converging around a shared center.