A herd of 100 life-sized elephants has just arrived on Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Back Bay. They’ll remain there through Sept. 13 between Dartmouth and Fairfield streets.
The sculptures are part of a free touring public art exhibition called The Great Elephant Migration. Since 2024, the herd has traveled across the United States, including stops in New York City; Newport, Rhode Island; Miami; and Houston.
“ I had to stop because I was seeing a troop of elephants. It’s amazing,” said Fenway resident Dawn Seong, who was surprised to see the sculptures during her morning walk.
The herd is installed so it appears to be heading east toward Boston Common. The elephants range from small calves to large tusked adults. Young children weaved in and out of the sculptures, touching the woody limbs.
“ It tells the story of India and India’s remarkable ability to coexist, not just with elephants, but all sorts of other challenging animals like tigers and leopards, rhinos, even lions,” said Ruth Ganesh, co-founder of The Great Elephant Migration.
The elephants are made from a repurposed invasive plant called Lantana camara by Indigenous artisans from the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India. Each sculpture takes three to four months to complete and is inspired by a real-life elephant that lives in the region. Currently, Ganesh said that 300 artisans are employed through the initiative. Together, they make up The Real Elephant Collective, and come from Paniya, Soliga, Bettakurumba and Kattunayakan communities.
Since its founding in 2015 by Ganesh and conservation researcher Tarsh Thekaekara, the project has sought to raise money and awareness for human-wildlife coexistence and wildlife conservation, while also repurposing a plant that has displaced wildlife in India’s forests.
“ I hope that they will simply have an emotional reaction to walking amongst 100 elephants,” said Ganesh, as she stood next to the elephants and their Boston visitors. “And I hope that will then translate into many small actions and large actions for all the different animals in the greater Massachusetts area that we get to live alongside.”
Elephants in the Boston herd sell for up to $22,500 depending on size. Each elephant is paired with a conservation organization, which receives the funds from its sale. In Boston, local beneficiaries include the New England Aquarium’s North Atlantic Right Whale conservation efforts and the Boston Public Art Triennial’s conservation projects. Since 2024, The Great Elephant Migration has raised $1.4 million across cities.
Baby elephants may be spotted across the city as local businesses and organizations “adopt” them. In New England, permanent installations of the elephants can be spotted in Newport, Rhode Island and Kensington, New Hampshire.
Boston is the first stop of 2026 for the project after their last installation in Beverly Hills in July 2025. The majority of the elephants were made new and traveled directly from India via ship. Future stops include Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and Rome, Italy.
Meet Boston Director of Strategic Initiatives Ryan Woods helped coordinate the installation with the City of Boston and Boston Art Commission. He hopes the installation draws visitors to Boston during a “slower season.”
“ These public art installations, they draw the local community together and they enhance the visitor experience,” said Woods. “So we thought it was a win-win both for residents and for the visitors.”
Tiffany Crawford of Cambridge brought her two daughters to the installation after learning about the project through social media. Her 6-year-old, Carter Crawford, especially enjoys art.
“They’re really cool,” she said. Crawford said she plans to draw the elephants on the next page of her notebook.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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