Artist Nari Ward’s We the People provided a stunning entry for his exhibition Nari Ward: Sun Splashed and an apt motif around which to structure conversations and programs.

Members of the ICA Teen Arts Council worked directly with the artist to help install the work, created from thousands of shoelaces.

In conjunction with the Nari Ward exhibition the ICA hosted a naturalization ceremony in which 137 people from more than 50 countries became U.S. citizens.

In Nalini Malani’s immersive In Search of Vanished Blood, rich imagery streamed through five clear Mylar cylinders that the artist hand painted with a variety of cultural and historical iconography.

Liz Deschenes’s 20-year survey provided visitors opportunities to slow down and consider light, color, and the mechanics of seeing in meditative, photographic works.

Artist Kara Walker spoke about her practice, the monumental Subtlety she installed in Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Refinery, and her celebrated cut-paper silhouettes in a moving Artist’s Voice talk.

Big Dance Theater brought their unique blend of theater and dance to the ICA in celebration of the company’s 25th anniversary.

The 2017 James and Audrey Foster Prize showcased work by internationally recognized Boston-based artists Sonia Almeida, Jennifer Bornstein, Lucy Kim, and Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor…

…all working physically with the body in some way.

In the Bank of America Art Lab, artist Bennie Flores Ansell’s Fish Out of Water invited participants of all ages to think about migration.

The Artist’s Museum explored how artists work with other artists’ work, reimagining the lives of artworks and tracing unexpected connections across cultures and history.

Visitors to the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater experienced lively music and dance, pop-up performances at First Fridays events, free participatory performances at Play Dates and community days, free open rehearsals, and more.

Bessie Award winner Beth Gill presented her evocative new work Brand New Sidewalk.

Outdoors, the popular Harborwalk Sounds concert series, organized in conjunction with Berklee College of Music, brought impressive emerging musicians and countless spectators for free evening performances on the waterfront.

Across the harbor in East Boston, the ICA started work on the Watershed, which will transform a disused former copper pipe factory into an industrial space for immersive art unlike anything in Boston. Opening Summer 2018.