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Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Art in the Woods

Entrance to Brookline, NH, Sculpture Park
Imagine hiking (in our case slowly walking) through a woodland trail in a small NH town and seeing more than
 100 sculptures of stone and metal where, years ago, skiers sped down steep runs.

You may be curious about where it came from and how it got to Brookline, NH?


In our case, curiosity led to (no surprise) another day trip, just a 30 minute drive from Nashua, NH. What we found were amazing pieces of art in an incredible outdoor sculpture park. For over 20 years, new and unique works have been created and installed in the woods.


It's called the Brookline Sculpture Park and it's considered New England's largest outdoor sculpture park. What started as several works of art in a front yard is now an outdoor museum with artwork among trails criss-crossing the mountain.This open air museum is free and open to the public year-round, dawn to dusk. Donations are always welcome.


Our visit started with a map downloaded from the park's website; copies were also available at a kiosk in the parking area. Truth is we felt that the map was more confusing than helpful and found it easier to explore the trails with a hiking app. Afterwards, we learned that the Trailforks app was recommended for use on the trails. Unfortunately, we hadn't downloaded it earlier and there's no wi-fi in the park. Thankfully, Grenville had MapMyHike, another hiking app which helped us navigate around. We've since downloaded the other app for another visit.


What is It?

The Sculpture Park, is located on the grounds of the Andres Art Institute. Artists worldwide have contributed pieces to this collection of metal and stone sculptures spread over the hills of a former ski area. The pieces can be seen along 11 hiking trails which range from easy to difficult. The views change with the seasons.

New works are created and installed yearly, some can be more abstract than others. While we could "see" the meaning in a number of the sculptures, there were many where even checking the title of the piece wasn't helpful to us.
Each year's artwork come from returning as well as new artists invited to visit Brookline for three weeks to create sculptures for permanent display. Over the years, participating sculptors have traveled from Lithuania, Latvia, England, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Egypt, Greece, Chile, and many U.S. states. In non-pandemic times, the public would be invited to watch the artists work and to join guided tours of the collection. Now, visitors walk the trails on their own as we did.

Paul Andres & John Weidman

Who Started It?
The Sculpture Park was the brainchild of engineer and innovator Paul Andres, who purchased a large tract of land on Big Bear Mountain in Brookline, NH in 1996. He moved into a house near the top of the mountain and started buying sculptures to place around the yard of his home. This large property was formerly part of Brookline Ski Area, one of the first ski-lift areas in New England. It later became a larger regional operation called Big Bear and later Musket Mountain. The ski area closed in 1984.
 
Andres combined his love of nature and art and added more sculptures to create a personal sculpture park. In 1998, he joined with sculptor and long-time Brookline resident John Weidman and they co-founded the Andres Institute of Art as a 501(c) (3) charitable organization to sponsor annual sculpture symposiums. 


At a symposium, sculptors gather to work and produce a permanent individual piece of public artwork. A sculpture symposium has been called the sculptor's fantasy come true. In 1959, the International Sculpture Symposium movement was spearheaded by Austrian sculptor Karl Prantl. 


Coincidentally, the first International Sculpture Symposium in the U.S. was held in New England in Proctor, VT in 1969 under the joint sponsorship of the Vermont Marble Company. 
Since then, international sculpture symposia have been held in towns and cities worldwide, including in Nashua, NH. The most recent one was in Sept and the works have been installed within the city.

The first Brookline, NH, sculpture symposium was held in 1999. Seven artists from Lithuania, Latvia, England, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Vermont, and NH stayed with local families and worked to create sculptures that were placed on permanent display on the mountain. At first, most town residents were unaware of what was happening on Big Bear Mountain as sculptors cut, bent, and welded steel; split, shape, ground and polished stone. 

Volunteers prepared the sites and later moved the completed pieces from the studio with heavy equipment. As years passed, the Sculpture Park has made Brookline, a destination for many.


How It Started

Once a year, up to 4 artists from the U.S. and other countries are invited to travel to Brookline, NH, to immerse themselves in its rural character and create art within a 3-week timeframe. The invitation is part of the Bridges and Connections International Sculpture Symposium sponsored by the Andres Art Institute.

Artists are housed with local residents who sponsor their stay, and work with volunteers who groom and prepare sculpture sites, and operate the heavy equipment needed to properly place the works, some of which are very hefty weighing several tons.

According to the Institute’s website, artists receive a small stipend, and are free to create what they like, then to place it where they want. The Institute provides tools and materials.

Hiking along the network of trails was an interesting experience. Some sculptures seemingly  speak shouted out their presence; others remained silent sentries. After all, art is subjective. Our trails exploration was done randomly without checking off each piece we saw. This brought some unexpected discoveries as, more than a few times, we nearly bypassed a sculpture. One of the goals of the Sculpture Park is to include art in nature so that it's unobtrusive. We felt it succeeded.

Arriving for our weekday late morning visit, the lower parking lot was nearly full, luckily an earlier visitor was just driving out. We noticed an equal number of NH and MA license plates; the park is close to the border of both these states. It was very easy to enjoy a socially distanced outdoors adventure. Visitors were requested to keep 6 feet distance between those not in their group and to wear masks, if this wasn't possible. While visitors were walking the trails, it was a rather silent environment. Taking time to rest on one of the well-placed stone benches, we chatted with a few visitors who were doing the same.

Sculptures came into view as we walked slowly and carefully along the winding, root-filled and quite rocky trails. The aptly named Quarry Trail had large rock piles, remnants of a former quarry at the site. Some of the sculptures had identifying details, others did not, many had enigmatic titles. We saw works by artists from NH, Zimbabwe, England, Iran, Canada, India, Ireland, Italy and Iceland among other countries.

Follow-up visits definitely are needed to see more of the park because the trails dis take us longer to hike when side steppings rocks and roots (bring hiking poles). We hiked for well over 2 hours (with photo and rest stops) and figure that we saw less than half of the sculptures scattered within the park's acreage.

Park trails are open from dawn to dusk daily, though the studios are closed. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are no portable toilets on site. Admission is Free and donations are encouraged at a parking lot sculpture that includes a metal mailbox. 

For most people, a donation is well worth the enjoyment of not only being able to walk around outdoors, but to see very unusual, creative, and beautiful sculptures, so close to home.

This was one of several sculptures that we easily recognizable with no information needed.

21 comments:

Ron said...

These sculptures are so cool! Each one so uniquely different. The second photo down, those sculptures reminded me of the animation you see in a Tim Burton film.

Some of my favorites are the cast iron and stone sculptures and the safe doors.

And it's so lovely to see the bright autumn foliage in your area because it hasn't been as dramatic here. And I think much of that has to do with living in a city, and the fact that it's been unusually warm and humid lately. I am soooooo looking forward to some cooler/colder weather.

Thank you for another informative and interesting post, my friend. Enjoyed!

Vee said...

Interesting! I like the last one best. ☺️

MadSnapper said...

it is it the perfect environment to view artwork. I mean what could be better than a tree filled Museum! Some of the art I like better than others but I love all of it what an amazing place to go and what a super duper idea

Anonymous said...

That is so cool. What a great place to hike around and see such beautiful works of art. Love this.

David said...

Beatrice, This sculpture park is very creative and extremely whimsical too! It looks like a fun place to walk while enjoying nature and art at the same time. Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Barbara Rogers said...

Great to see sculptures in natural settings. I enjoyed your walking and photographing these. Thanks so much. I have an arti blog "Alchemy of Clay" with some gallery art displays here in Black Mountain NC.https://blackmtnbarb.blogspot.com

Edna B said...

What an interesting park. Most of the sculptures are not my cup of tea, but I found the last ones (stone busts) interesting. They look like early Mayan sculptures. You have a wonderful day, hugs, Edna B.

Jeanie said...

This is so lovely! The park is lovely enough in itself, and I can't think of a better way to take it up a notch -- not that it needed it! Seeing sculpture outdoors is really a wonderful experience and so many of these are really very handsome and unique. What a fun excursion.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

From the conventional to the avant garde the sculptures are quite wonderful, and no doubt provoke lots of discussion among all who get to enjoy them. What a great project. I especially like the negotiation table. I can think of a few people I would like to park there on pain of never leaving until they solved their differences!

Brenda Kay Ledford said...

The Brookline Sculpture Park is amazing. Thank you for sharing these incredible photos and educating us about this awesome place. What a great day trip!

Emma Springfield said...

It is a fabulously inspired idea. The artwork is fantastic. This bucket list-worthy.

Buttercup said...

This is fascinating and totally new to me. I'm adding it to my infinite "to see" list, though I'm not scheduled for a trip to New Hampshire until 2022 -- assuming that we're traveling again. Your pictures are terrific.

Rita said...

Even when you have no clue what some of the sculptures are this entire walk would be just fascinating to look at all the them. Wow! Thanks for taking us along!!
Working on a letter to you right now--LOL! Paused to get coffee and check email and there was a post from you even as we were paper chatting. :)

Red said...

What an amazing place . It just takes one person with vision to promote a project like this park.

diane b said...

What a wonderful place. Art an fitness all rolled into one. How do you make your collages?

Margaret D said...

How interesting is that park and the sculptures.. thanks for that and the information.
Autumn leaves and colours are always good to see.
Take care.

Marcia said...

That place must be huge. Someone must be tasked with keeping the forest from reclaiming the areas where the sculptures are placed. I think I prefer sculpture in smaller doses. The only other large sculpture garden I've been to was somewhere in NJ.

Rain said...

Wow Dorothy! I've never been to a sculpture park, never knew they existed actually. Thanks for sharing those photos, I love every piece, especially that sea shell! Cute photo of you two lovebirds!! :)

DUTA said...

As far as I know we don't have a sculpture park, but we do have sculptures placed along streets and central outdoor spots. The idea behind that is to create ties between the people on the street with the artist and his/her work.
I like the last exhibit in your post as it is not only art, but practical and useful.

My name is Erika. said...

This is interesting. I have never heard of this park. It looks like a great find. And just as interesting is finding new places to visit. Thanks for taking us on this fun walk.

L. D. said...

That is an amazing group of sculptures. A large variety of styles to enjoy.