Great Art on Pavement: The Story of Sidewalk Sam

A Boston institution, the artist Robert Guillemin talks about his mission to bring art to the streets.

By Rebecca Kellogg

They don’t call him Sidewalk Sam for nothing.

If you’ve ever vacationed in Boston, there is a chance you’ve encountered his work, not in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Gardner, the Institute of Contemporary Arts or Harvard’s Fogg Museum. Chances are, you’ve stumbled upon or rolled over Sidewalk Sam’s artwork, literally, on the pavement below.

A Brief History of Sidewalk Sam

For just about 40 years, “Sidewalk Sam,” whose real name is Robert Guillemin, has been reproducing the world’s masterpieces not on walls or canvas, but on concrete.

“The mayor of Boston calls me Sidewalk, John Kerry calls me Sidewalk,” Guillemin said. “I was well-known in Boston, but one day a team from The Wall Street Journal came up to see me when I was doing a project at City Hall, and they said, ‘Are you Sidewalk Sam?’ and I said I was. The front page of The Wall Street Journal said ‘Sidewalk Sam,’ and that made it official.”

Guillemin earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in painting, pursuing a childhood dream. After a post-collegiate period of exhibitions and commissions, he decided that art confined to a gallery did not serve the people. He decided to take his art to the streets of Boston, chalking European masterpieces at the feet of passers-by.

“One day the mayor called me into his office and said, ‘You know, your art is popular with the tourists, but because it’s chalk it only lasts for one day. What if you used paint?’” Guillemin said. “So he introduced me to the Department of Public Works and they showed me the paint they used on the sidewalk. Now I use paint that lasts six months to a year, sometimes longer.”

Painting the Town Red, Blue, Green…

Guillemin, who has been using a wheelchair since he was spinal cord injured in an accident in 1994, selects locations and subject matter fairly spontaneously.

“I’ll get up and think ‘It’s a perfectly lovely day, why don’t I do Renoir this morning?” Guillemin said. “And I’ll think where to do it, and go out and do it. Now it’s somewhat more official. I call into City Hall and let them know. They’ll inform the Department of Public Works and the Police Department, and the Tourist Department. Tour buses will know where I’ll be and they’ll tell people on their bus that Sidewalk Sam is out today.”

Each painting takes just one day.

“I do them in a day because that’s how long I’d like to spend on a sidewalk artwork,” said Guillemin. “I suppose if I had a copy of the Sistene Chapel it would take me two days. I begin at seven or eight in the morning and work until six o’clock at night.”

Art for the Public

Guillemin’s public art expands beyond pavement paintings.

“I visited a school in a section of Boston called Roxbury,” Guillemin said. “I talked to the children and did an artwork with them. Boston like all cities has some difficulties with youth-on-youth violence. We did a 6,000 square foot artwork on the sidewalk about peace; we drew a giant dove with a banner in its talons saying, ‘Stop violence, create peace.’ I talked about how art is a natural expression of goodness, and, by using art—and poetry, dance and music—art can lead society and direct it toward peaceful endeavors, and allow artists to be a force for the good in society.”

Guillemin has been involved with imaginative large-scale projects. The largest one celebrated International Earth Day in 1990.

“John Kerry was the president of International Earth Day,” Guillemin said. “He asked if I would be able to do a work appropriate to the day. We got the idea to close down a highway and begin at the Atlantic Ocean facing west, and paint it green. We turned it back into a green meadow for the day!

“Dunkin’ Donuts contributed 60,000 boxes of chalk. And on Earth Day we had over 60,000 people come out onto our new green meadow and fill it with bunny rabbits, butterflies, and bluebirds. So that highway, which like highways everywhere in America had turned farmlands and meadows into parking lots and streets, was turned back into a meadow for the day, celebrating the Earth.”

Another memorable project involved the children of the entire Boston school system, FedEx, and a train station.

“People thought there were limits on how many children could come together to produce a work of art,” Guillemin said. “One year I decided to reach out to the Boston school system and ask the schools to involve all the children. It was complicated. FedEx and other companies delivered art and other materials to schools across Boston, and the teachers and students each did a four inch by four inch artwork on racial harmony. The squares were glued together to make a giant artwork two stories tall and two hundred feet long.”

The art was hung in a train station at Boston.

“When you looked at the individual squares, you saw a little expression by one single child,” Guillemin said. “When you backed up and saw all the squares together, you realized each artwork was made on a specially colored paper and all 40,000 formed one giant picture depicting children from all different races living in harmony together. We called it ‘Kids Have Pride’ and it showed how children could lead us into an understanding of our shared humanity.”

First Night

Guillemin is among the group of artists who originated the New Year’s Eve celebration “First Night” in Boston.

“It was an idea that friends of mine and I started in 1976,” Guillemin said. “Now it’s done in Boston every year and it’s grown to other cities around the country. It’s wonderful! It used to be that to bring in the New Year, guys would get drunk and get in a fight. Artists in Boston said that’s poor in spirit. Let’s celebrate the New Year with the arts, and have people dancing in the streets! It’s a perfect human expression of glee and fulfillment to celebrate our children and grandchildren in a festival of renewal every year.”

It was a small affair the first year.

“Storefronts and church basements and parks would give space for small performing groups,” Guillemin said. “But it grew every year until a million people now celebrate the New Year with the arts. Although it is often well below freezing and the parks deep in snow, people will come out and celebrate like they would on a spring day.”

Guillemin’s small nonprofit ArtStreet has a mission to take the arts out of the palaces of art and into the cross-roads of America to give joy to everyone. Readers can learn more at www.sidewalksam.com.

Rebecca Kellogg is a freelance writer based out of California. Read more of her writing at www.rebeccakellogg.com.