Boston Flora

Tag: The Trustees

  • Through Sunday, April 30 – Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days

    Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days showcases six monumental, abstract sculptures by the acclaimed contemporary African American artist Melvin Edwards (b. 1937). This traveling exhibition, first organized by the New York City based nonprofit Public Art Fund for City Hall Park in 2021 constitutes Edwards’ first thematic survey of outdoor sculptures and deCordova’s first outdoor solo exhibition in many years. Brighter Days, a title chosen by the artist, brings forth conversations on Black history and identity, and evokes Edwards’ optimistic view of our shared future.

    Brighter Days offers a focused look at Edwards’ accomplishments in large-scale sculpture and public art through five sculptures from 1970 to 1996, and a sixth commissioned in 2020 for Brighter Days. These six works elaborate on his examination of race, labor, and the African Diaspora, and feature his signature use of abstract, representational icons like chains. To the artist, the chain possesses numerous meanings, ranging from its function as a “welded rope” for pulling, its use for bondage and constraints, and its more metaphorical association to linkage and connectivity. By fragmenting and breaking the links, Edwards creates nuanced interpretations of the chain, including its allusions to slavery and violence, as well as liberation and connection. All at once, Brighter Days encourages mindfulness of the past, while inspiring resiliency, overcoming, and connection.

    A pioneer of abstract sculpture, Houston-born Melvin Edwards began his career in the 1960s after studying at the University of Southern California. Edwards gained notoriety from his first solo exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1965, where he uniquely blurred abstraction and symbolism to comment on social justice issues – an approach distinct from his Minimalist and Post-Modernist contemporaries. At this time, he initiated his renowned, ongoing body of work Lynch Fragments, a sculpture series investigating themes of racial violence, anti-war protest, and Edwards’ connections to Africa. Shortly thereafter, he exhibited at the Studio Museum of Harlem in 1969, and by 1970, became the first African American sculptor with a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Edwards has produced over 20 public works throughout his career for universities, public housing projects, and museums. Now living and working across multiple studios in two states and Senegal, Melvin Edwards continues to be a leading voice in sculpture, exhibiting nationally and internationally.

    The Exhibition will be on display at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln. The event is sponsored by The Trustees of Reservations. For more information visit https://thetrustees.org/exhibit/melvin-edwards-brighter-days/

    Melvin Edwards, “Song of the Broken Chains”, 2020

  • Saturday, May 6 – Sunday, May 7 – Long Hill Garden Symposium

    The Long Hill Garden Symposium, held over two days (Saturday May 6 & Sunday May 7), brings together an internationally renowned group of plant specialists and horticultural professionals. The fantastic line up of speakers have been featured on a wide variety of media outlets, from Oprah to Shark Tank and The New York Times to Fine Gardening. This unique event will be held across the Long Hill property in Beverly, Massachusetts with a theme of ‘thinking about the plant world in a creative way’.  The event is broken down into two days: Day 1 features a series of guest speakers, all of which are included with lunch and tea/coffee for a single fee. Day 2 features a series of a la carte workshops, which are individually priced. More details can be found here: https://thetrustees.org/program/long-hill-symposium/

  • Welcoming Nicie Panetta

    John Judge left his role as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Trustees in October. The Board of Directors have appointed Nicie Panetta, Board of Directors Vice Chair, as the Interim President and CEO of The Trustees to oversee management of the organization during this transition. The Board of Directors are grateful to John for his contributions to The Trustees during a time of significant change and the organization is poised for continued success. John will continue to advocate for climate resiliency and urban access to nature and the outdoors.


    Nicie Panetta has dedicated 15 years of service with The Trustees as a member of the Board where she recently served as Vice Chair. Throughout her tenure she has championed the stewardship of our cultural resources, climate resiliency work, and efforts to reach diverse new audiences with innovative programming.


  • Saturday, September 24, 10:00 am – 11:30 am – Herbal Plant Meditation: The Magic of Burdock

    Join The Trustees and herbalist Faith Johnson for a guided plant meditation on September 24 at the Leland Cooperative herb Garden, 4 Leland Street in Jamaica Plain, helping us to connect more deeply to our plant medicine. We’ll gather outdoors in an enchanting, tucked-away JP community garden to connect with the consciousness of the medicinal plant burdock and experience the herbal decoction. During the meditation, Faith will guide us through relaxing embodiment exercises and visualizations, followed by journaling, group reflection, and a sharing of the medicinal and energetic properties of the plant. These workshops are magical, contemplative, and leave participants not only with oral knowledge but experiential knowledge and a general feeling of well being and connection to themselves and the natural world.

    Faith Johnson (she, her, hers) is a contemplative arts facilitator, herbalist, Reiki practitioner with experience working at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and owner of Full Circle Arts. She is an internationally exhibiting multi-medium artist with an MFA from Tufts University specializing in collaborative and meditative art making. Faith created Full Circle Arts to bring together and share her knowledge and love of the natural world, creativity, healing arts, and the desire for individual and communal contemplative experiences that support well-being. Trustees members $12, nonmembers $20. Register at https://thetrustees.org/event/79982/

  • Sunday, September 18, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm – Herbal Tea Making Workshop

    Explore the gardens and fields of Long Hill, 572 Essex Street in Beverly, to find plants that can be used for making teas that are both tasty and nutritious. Learn about safety and resources for identifying plants. We make will make a tea with 3 to 5 local plants for teas, and talk about how to prepare teas, whether to use fresh or dried plants, the benefits of the plants harvested, and how to dry them for later use. A handout with plants and a couple of recipes will be included.

    Please dress appropriately for the weather. Sturdy shoes are recommended. This program, sponsored by The Trustees of Reservations, is $24 for Trustees members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at https://thetrustees.org/event/78491/

  • Through April 30, 2023 – Rose B. Simpson: Counterculture

    Rose B. Simpson’s Counterculture is installed along the horizon line of a Field Farm meadow that is visible from Sloan Road in Williamstown. The sculptural artwork consists of twelve cast-concrete figures that stand approximately ten feet tall. The figures are adorned with ceramic and found objects and include steel-posts rooted into the ground with cement.

    Simpson’s most ambitious work to date, Counterculture honors generations of marginalized people and cultures whose voices have been too often silenced by colonization. The figures look across a post-apocalyptic vista, the vast homelands from which native peoples were forcibly removed. The artist imagines the figures as watchful presences, reminders that history and the natural world perpetually observe humanity. With hollow eyes that catch the morning sunlight, the feminine-bodied forms also suggest that Mother Earth shows us the way—that respect for the land and its original inhabitants are the honorable way forward.

    The Trustees is sponsoring this open air, free exhibit, and there are many guided tour opportunities that may be accessed at https://thetrustees.org/exhibit/counterculture/

    Rose B. Simpson’s life work is a seeking out of tools with the potential to heal the damages of being human in our postmodern and postcolonial era. These tools manifest as artworks that function in psychological, emotional, social, cultural, spiritual, intellectual, and physical realms. The artist intends for these tools-cum-artworks to help build cures. In this sense, Simpson strives to imbue her artworks with poetic yet hard-working utilitarian concepts.

    Rose B. Simpson (b. 1983, Santa Clara Pueblo) is a mixed-media artist from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Her life’s work is a seeking out of tools with the potential to heal the damages of being human in our postmodern and postcolonial era. These tools manifest as artworks that function in psychological, emotional, social, cultural, spiritual, intellectual, and physical realms. She explores a range of creative disciplines to make the artworks, including ceramics, sculpture, metals, fashion, performance, music, installation, writing, and custom-car work. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design, an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts, a BFA from the University of New Mexico, and a certificate in Automotive Science from Northern New Mexico College. Her work is collected by museums across the continent and exhibited internationally. She lives and works from her home at Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico.

    Rose B. Simpson’s Counterculture is organized by Jamilee Lacy, guest curator of The Trustees of Reservations’ 2022 Art & Landscape program and is on view through Spring 2023 at  Field Farm at 554 Sloan Road, Williamstown, MA 01267.

  • Thursday, August 18, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Wine Walks – Unusual Annuals for Your Garden

    Join The Trustees and Naumkeag’s horticulturist for an exclusive tour of the gardens of Naumkeag, 5 Prospect Hill Road in Stockbridge, while sipping on a glass of wine. Each wine walk will include a glass of wine, an after hours tour of the gardens led by Naumkeag’s horticulturist and an invitation to enjoy the sunset after the tour. The tour and wine discussion will be about an hour with a half hour afterwards to enjoy the grounds at your leisure. Each month will feature a different topic for the garden tour along with a unique wine. You are encouraged to attend multiple walks. On August 18, the focus will be on Unusual Annuals for Your Garden. Rain will cancel. Please dress accordingly to the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. Please email aduquette@thetrustees.org for additional information. Trustees Members $20, nonmembers $25.

    Seaside Buckwheat

  • Thursday, August 4, 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Dorchester Community Garden Tour

    Stroll through summer gardens in full bloom! This guided tour sponsored by The Trustees on August 4 will take you to three Dorchester community gardens plus two unique home gardens, and introduce you to some of the gardeners who make these urban green spaces thrive. Along the way, you’ll enjoy a garden mixology demo and tasting, delicious dinner from a local restaurant, and making an infused herbal vinegar to take home.

    All proceeds from the tour directly support operations and education in the Trustees’ network of 56 community gardens across Boston, including our 18 gardens in Dorchester.

    Sign up for a time slot when you register: 5:00, 5:30, or 6:00pm.

    The total walk is under a mile and the pace will be relaxed. The community gardens and walking route are wheelchair accessible; the home gardens vary. Please contact us for additional information about accessibility and any accommodations that might help you or your guests enjoy the tour.

    Questions? Contact Michelle at mdelima@thetrustees.org or 978-338-1192. $60 for Trustees members, $75 for nonmembers. Register at https://thetrustees.org/event/76784/

  • Through Tuesday, November 1 – ViewEscapes: George Rickey Kinetic Sculpture

    A dynamic exhibition of kinetic sculptures and art by George Rickey opens at Naumkeag in Stockbridge this spring, partnering with the George Rickey Foundation and the George Rickey estate.

    The exhibit, entitled ViewEscapes features twelve large, outdoor sculptures that will be placed throughout the designed landscape. Inside the 44 acre “cottage” find eight more sculptures and three works of art, including Rickey’s interior tabletop works, hanging pieces, artwork, and archival documents.

    George Warren Rickey (1907-2002), artist and kinetic sculptor, created geometric forms in stainless steel, polished metal, and painted surfaces that moved gracefully through space. His work was featured at the two exhibitions of Sculpture at Naumkeag in 1994 and 1997. Naumkeag was then and is an ideal setting for Rickey’s work. The garden spaces have numerous “viewscapes” for sculpture placement and the constant breeze along the hillside provides the energy that sets his works in motion.

    ViewEscapes will officially open to the public during the Naumkeag Daffodil and Tulip Festival and be on view through November 1, 2022. Special events designed to highlight the exhibition will also be offered throughout the duration of the exhibition, including a programs, lectures, and special fundraisers. Advance-reservations will be required for admission and limited tickets will be available for day-of tours on a first-come, first-served basis.

    Funding for this exhibition has been provided by a generous challenge grant from Kate and Hans Morris, which raised additional support from the Claudia K. Perles Family Foundation, Joseph McNay and Paula Moats McNay, Luca Borghese and Michael Pierson, Mr. Randolph G. Hawthorne and Ms. Carliss Y. Baldwin, Mr. Stephen Oristaglio and Mrs. Jeryl Oristaglio, and Douglas Molin and Melanie Mowinski. For more information visit https://thetrustees.org/exhibit/georgerickey/

    (Photo by Matthew Healey)
  • Saturday, June 18, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – South End Garden Tour

    Saturday, June 18, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – South End Garden Tour

    The garden gates open in Boston’s South End for the annual South End Tour. This always-popular neighborhood event provides an opportunity to explore some of the South End’s most spectacular private outdoor spaces. Thread through alleys and walkways for a self-guided, behind-the-scenes look at gardens ranging from intimate, informal, and even quirky spaces designed by resident gardeners, to the work of noted landscape designers — many of which are open to the public only on the day of this tour. The tour rotates through the neighborhood opening new gardens every year. All proceeds support our gardens and educational programming throughout Boston’s gardens.

    New this year, tour tickets will be advance purchase only for timed entry in order to avoid crowding within the tour sites. Trustees of Reservations members $28, nonmembers $35. Register HERE. For more information call 617-869-6720.