A Visual Journey Across Continents
The new exhibition, titled “The Beautiful Game Comes to Boston,” opened this week in the Winthrop Center, a downtown office tower that has become an unexpected venue for a cross‑continental soccer story.
Organized by Scottish architect John McAsland, the show brings together photographs, personal narratives and historic timelines that trace the football traditions of Scotland and Haiti, two nations whose love of the sport runs deep in their streets and communities.
McAsland, whose firm has delivered high‑profile projects from Sydney’s subway stations to London’s Sloane Street, first fell in love with Haiti fifteen years ago when his team helped reconstruct the Iron Market in Port‑au‑Prince after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Among the artifacts on display is a 1540s Scottish pig‑bladder ball and a portrait of Constantin Henriquez, the Haitian pioneer who introduced soccer to his country in 1904 and later served as a senator, symbolizing the early roots of the game in the Caribbean.
The exhibit also highlights the shared spirit of independence and the growing prominence of women’s soccer in both societies, while noting that Celtic FC has become one of the most followed clubs in Haiti since launching a charitable foundation there in 2015.
Boston’s Haitian community, the third‑largest in the United States with roughly 80,000 residents, is expected to swell with Scottish fans when the two teams meet in Foxborough for the World Cup match, underscoring the city’s role as a cultural bridge.
Looking ahead, McAsland says his next major project will be the reconstruction of Haiti’s national stadium, a crumbling venue that he hopes to transform into a symbol of renewal for the country’s football future.