When the first Art in the Park took place in 2008 in Elm Park in Worcester, Massachusetts, founder Gloria Hall said, “there [weren’t] any sculpture shows like this in a public park.” Now, in 2023, there are several taking place in New England. It’s a bonanza for visitors to the sites hosting them and the sculptors. “The artists get to meet other artists from elsewhere and learn how to display their works in other locations,” Hall said.
“Love in Action: Joy, Community, Creativity, Art in The Park, Worcester’s 10th Exhibition” features 28 installations by artists from throughout the region and continues through October 6. Connecticut sculptor David Skora is showing “Bent” and “Whirlwind,” both made of welded steel; he’s also got work on view in Bennington, Vermont and The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts. For him, the growth in outside shows has resulted in almost his entire inventory being on view somewhere in the United States. Anne Alexander, from Windham, Maine, installed her “Shellchain” cedar sculpture made from cedar wood that she hopes creates “inspiring emotional or kinesthetic responses in the viewer.” A + J Art + Design’s orange “SOS Swimmers” float amongst the geese, turtles and herons. Kept in place by an anchor and tethering system, Ann Hirsch and Jeremy Angier’s eight figures are part of a larger collection intended to refer to the increasing number of refugees globally, especially those who cross bodies of water in search of safety. “Today there are 32 million refugees in the world. The pond is not big enough to accommodate an assembly of 32 figures so each figure in the Elm Park installation represents 4 million refugees globally. This number is hard to envision, and we hope our work addresses the scope of a crisis that involves people from many different places.”
Twenty miles to the east, at Beals Preserve in Southborough, the Southborough Open Land Foundation is hosting its 7th annual “Art on the Trails” with a theme of “Transformation.” The work of 20 artists is joined by poetry written in response to the work. It is fascinating to see the intersection of art and nature as various aspects of the preserve serve as inspiration for the artists’ creations.
Seventy-five bovine statues can be found in “pastures” throughout the Greater Boston area as part of CowParade New England. The cows, painted by regional artists, have a dual purpose — first, “to celebrate 75 years of progress and impact made possible by the Jimmy Fund community” and, after the public viewing ends on September 4, through the raising of funds for future cancer research by their sale. Visit cowparadenewengland.com for cow locations.
In Stowe, Vermont, The Current, 90 Pond St., is showing work both inside and out for its “A Place of Memory” exhibition that will feature sculpture by Woody De Othello, Nicholas Galanin, vanessa german, Deborah Kass and Nyugen Smith. The work, which will be on display through October 21, is intended “to question public representation and how cultures and countries choose to define their past through monuments, memorials, and sculptural objects. Through their work, artists in this exhibition reclaim their own ancestral stories, asking the viewer to rethink how we present history, and therefore, our values.”
The 26th Annual North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show, on view through November 12, in Vermont’s southwestern corner, features “over 40 artists scattered throughout the village of North Bennington” with an additional 20 plus artists displaying their work on Bennington Museum’s beautiful 10-acre property in Old Bennington for the fourth consecutive year.”
One of the area’s most beautiful locations, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, 125 Arborway, Boston, Massachusetts, is presenting Pamela R. Tarbell’s “Marsh Kaleidoscope” paintings through October 8. The 15 paintings that will be displayed in the Hunnewell Building Thursday through Tuesday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (with an artist reception from July 15 from 1-3 p.m.) is “a vibrant artistic response to the multi-layered movement of life above, on, and under the water, highlighting the importance of protecting our environment and our wetlands” along with a group of five paintings inspired by an autumn afternoon spent exploring the arboretum.
“Through Hopper’s Lens,” the 2023 National Show at the Copley Society of Art, 158 Newbury St., Boston, Massachusetts, opens on July 6 and continues through August 19. Artists were encouraged “to submit artwork inspired by American born painter, Edward Hopper, noted for his fascination with light and his observations of American life.” David Lloyd Brown, the former Dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, reviewed the submissions for inclusion in a show that, via an early look, is a great collection of paintings and photographs that combines Hopper’s iconic style with the participating artists own interpretation in portraying “everyday” places, people and things in a beloved fashion.
“Summer Crush,” an exhibition featuring the work of Margit Burmeister (assembled painted wood compositions), Sandi Daniel, S.W. Dinge (stripped-down compositions), Michael Fanelli (reflective sunlight photography), Shelley Lawrence Kirkwood (nature photography), Diana Sartor (mixed media works), Carol Scavotto(narrative paintings), Shari Weschler (from her “Bunni” series), Dan Welden (paintings rich in mystery) and Annie Wildey (coastal landscape paintings) opens on July 7 and runs through September 10 at the AiR Studio Gallery, 19-B Railroad Ave., Westerly, Rhode Island.