Art on the Trails | Call for Art
I’m Here, Still Here | Sarah Alexander, Best in Show 2022
Art on the Trails is an important cultural program in New England that is presented in the green space of the Beals Preserve in Southborough, Massachusetts. Along the trails sculptures are installed the remain on view until the fall. Information about the artists is presented through a QR code near each piece. Plein air poetry through a juried poetry program, has attracted hundreds over the years. Poets write poetry in response to the art installations. A catalog/poetry chapbook is also published annually with photos of the sculptures.
Art on the Trails: A Unique Walk In the Woods in Southborough
From Catherine Weber:
Art on the Trails, an outdoor art program in Southborough, Massachusetts is in its 7th year. I started the program at the request of the board of the Southborough Open Land Foundation, to raise awareness for their largest nature preserve, a 55-acre wooded property called the Elaine and Phillip Beals Preserve, located at the Northwest corner of Southborough on Rte. 30. My first effort, 9 years ago, was unorganized and unjuried, but I learned a lot and decided to do it again, with structure and funding. The show runs from June 10, installation day, through September 17. The exhibition is free and open to the public, dawn to dusk. The Southborough Community Fund has been one of our biggest supporters year over year, enabling us to offer all accepted artists stipends for their installation.
This program, which has attracted high quality jurors and artists from all over New England, as well as as far away as Chicago, New Jersey and even Europe, has also brought hundreds of visitors throughout the summer months. While we don’t know exactly how many, since there is no turnstile at the nature preserve, we do know that more than 400 maps are taken from the holders, and more than 100 people attend the closing event each September to hear poetry read on the trails. We are happy to have sold a number of pieces of work, including a sculpture priced at $15,000.
This year, Sarah Alexander, Hopedale artist and Creative Director at Hopkinton Center for the Arts will be jurying the show, which is themed Transformation. As a two-time exhibitor of the show, and first prize winner in 2022, she brings great knowledge and understanding to the jurying process.
We have an amazing team of support staff, including poet and publisher Maura Snell, who coordinates the poetry component of the program and edits our chapbook, Cynthia Franca, a poetry editor, Chelsea Bradway, our award-winning photographer, Todd Vroman, our installation manager, Jocelyn Gregory, marketing and event coordinator, and Vera Lohmann, who designs our art and poetry chapbook. Every year, these folks step up and help make this program better and better.
And, it is important to note that this program could not happen without the support of the Southborough Open Land Foundation and Southborough Community Fund.
Art & Poetry
Be a part of this wonderful event that brings poetry alive on the trails with masterful installations of art. Details on the poetry call for art will be posted coming soon!
From Juniper Rag:
Catherine contacted us as advocates for the arts in central Massachusetts and to collaborate to share the call for art for Art on the Trails. Immediately we jumped at the opportunity to do what we could to spread the word—to artists and to poets.
With a lot of wonderful community overlaps discovered on Zoom, we are committed to assisting in bringing awareness to this important event that brings tourism to the trails of Southborough. Sarah Alexander, the curator of Transformation is a brilliant artist in our community and we could not be prouder to support the 2023 efforts. We are looking forward to this summer and celebrating Art on the Trails.
Please share with any sculpture artists and poets you know! This is a great opportunity to show you work to hundreds of new people in metro west.
Art on the Trails Chapbooks are produced each year that feature the juried art installations alongside poetry written in response | All photos: Chelsea Bradway
About this year’s art call:
The Southborough Open Land Foundation, in collaboration with Southborough Artist Catherine Weber, is pleased to present the 7th Annual Art On the Trails in the summer of 2023. The theme is Transformation.
Learn more about the theme and respond to the call for art. The exhibition was installed from June 10 to September 17th, 2023 at the Elaine and Philip Beals Preserve, Southborough, Massachusetts.
The call for art, which is open until April 15, can be found on Art on the Trails.
You can also follow them on @artonthetrails on Instragram and on Facebook. Learn about the calls for art and poetry, and see video interviews with participating artists.
TRANSFORMATION CALL FOR ART CLOSES APRIL 15
Sarah Alexander, Curator for Transformation 2023
Sarah Alexander is a multi-disciplinary artist working on paper, canvas, & sculpting with steel. She is the Director of Visual Arts where she manages the gallery, art department, and teaches teens and adults at Hopkinton Center for the Arts. She is a Core Artist Member at Fountain Street Gallery in Boston. She participated in the 2021 and 2022 Art on the Trails exhibitions, and won first prize for her work, I’m Here, Still Here.
Juror’s notes about Sarah’s sculpture: Juror Anne Alexander said about the work, “I selected Sarah Alexander’s piece I’m Here, Still Here as best in show for her meaningful sculpture which to me comments on the state of our endangered environment. It has a powerful presence in its field location, and demonstrates excellent craftsmanship, and hours of thoughtful labor to complete.”
The 8′ tall sculpture is made from 160 lbs of cold hammered and welded steel, and sits at the top of the lower meadow at Beals Preserve. It took hundreds of hours over three months to craft. Sarah says about the work, “This work speaks to isolation in all its forms and the effect that it has on us. It might be self-imposed, or from illness, depression, grief, or incarceration. We create our own prisons sometimes.” The outer cage is galvanized and should not rust, while the creature in the cage is left untreated it will change with the elements over time revealing the price of isolation.
Catherine Weber, Founder of Art on the Trails
Catherine Weber, Founder and Program Director, is an award-winning poet and artist, community organizer, and marketing executive with a passion for the arts, education, and the environment. Among her many roles, she teaches art, marketing, and technology skills regionally, shows her work nationally, and organizes community programs and events locally. She is a charter member of New England Wax, a professional group of artists who paint with wax, and a member of the Southborough Cultural Council. She was raised in upstate New York, Indiana, and Connecticut and has lived in Southborough, Massachusetts for 25 years. She holds a BA in Communications from Emerson College and an MA in Critical and Creative Thinking from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Catherine is a partner in Apothecary Artists, a studio space and gallery in downtown Southborough and owner of Southborough Free Art Gallery, a tiny gallery at the end of her driveway. Learn more at catherinemweber.com.
