PHOTOS: Among the Majestic Oaks and Azaleas at the Arnold Arboretum, John Luther Adams’ “Inuksuit” Lifts the Human Spirit

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Sunday June 12, 2016 was a day we will never forget. Waking up to the horrific news that fifty people were shot dead at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida felt like having been hit in the gut for hours and hours without stop. While details of the unspeakable events that transpired in Orlando were still unfolding, many Bostonians experienced the premiere of John Luther Adams’Inuksuit, an outdoor performance consisting of 92 percussionists with 650 instruments that was sure to lift everyone’s spirits.

Performed on a stunning pre-Summer—albeit chilly for June—day at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, the Boston premiere of Inuksuit was organized by Kadence Arts in collaboration with the Arboretum. Directed by Maria Finkelmeier and Amy Garapic, the work for percussion ensemble brought together musicians from across the United States and the world, who for 75 minutes used conch shells, gongs, maracas, air horns, drums, sirens, cymbals and glockenspiels to create sounds that simultaneously harmonized and clashed with one another.

The work, which was designed to “heighten awareness of the sights and sounds that surround us every day,” took place among the Arboretum’s Oak and Azalea Collection—one of my favorite areas of the Arboretum for its proximity to the Explorer’s Garden, Birch and the world renowned Lilac Collection. Meditative at times and energizing in others, participants in the Boston presentation of this work were encouraged to walk throughout the entire Oak and Azalea Collection to form a personal connection to the work and the natural beauty of the arboretum.

The roaring wind, the birds chirping and the chit-chatter of those in attendance made for a magical afternoon among the tall oaks and the azaleas. I got there early, roamed around for a bit, took lots of photos and saw many familiar faces among the hundreds of people in attendance. It is has widely been written that nature and music have many healing properties, especially when combined as in John Luther Adams’ work Inuksuit. In context to the events of Sunday morning, Luther Adams’ work gained a new layer of meaning and those of us in attendance have started the healing process with nature and music.

All photos by the author.

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Peabody Essex Museum Appoints Lynda Roscoe Hartigan as Its New Deputy Director

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Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, New Deputy Director at the Peabody Essex Museum. Image Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum.

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, who has served as the chief curator of the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) since 2003, has been newly appointed as the James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes Deputy Director of the museum. Ms. Hartigan succeeds Josh Basseches, who departed the PEM to lead the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

Ms. Hartigan is considered the leading scholar on American artist Joseph Cornell. She specializes in American art, especially modern, folk and outsider, and African American art, and has curated numerous exhibitions and has published extensively. Prior to joining the Peabody Essex Museum, she served as curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

Congratulations, Lynda!

More information can be found in the press release

Martha Tedeschi Appointed Director of the Harvard Art Museums

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Martha Tedeschi, Image Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Harvard University announced on Wednesday March 9, that Martha Tedeschi has been named the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums, effective July 2016. Tedeschi is currently the deputy director for art and research at the Art Institute of Chicago. Tedeschi replaces Thomas W. Lentz, who left his  director post in July 2015.

Tedeschi joins an expanding (hopefully this is just the beginning) list of female museum directors across New England which include Jill Medvedow of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston who was appointed director in 1998, Peggy Fogelman of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum who assumed her directorship in January 2016 and Susan Strickler of the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH who is retiring from the museum in June 2016 and who has been the museum’s longest serving director.

For more information on Martha Tedeschi’s appointment, click here

The Fruitlands Museum to Merge with The Trustees of Reservations 

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The Alcott Farmhouse at Fruitlands Museum. Photo Courtesy of the Fruitlands Museum.

The Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts announced on February 18, that it plans to merge with The Trustees of Reservations—the state’s largest conservation and preservation nonprofit founded in 1891.

The Fruitlands Museum which was founded in 1914 by author and preservationist Clara Endicott Sears, takes its name from a failed experimental utopian community once located on the same site. The museum itself consists of a group of buildings that includes a farmhouse, a Shaker Museum—considered the first Shaker museum in the United States—a Native American Museum, an Art Museum and a visitor center where educational programs and classes are held.

The merger seems like a perfect fit for both the Trustees of Reservations and The Fruitlands Museum. The Trustees of Reservations oversee 26,000 acres of working farms, landscaped and urban gardens, and community parks, barrier beaches, forests, campgrounds, inns and historic sites—many of which are National Historic Landmarks and include works such as McKim, Mead & White’s architectural masterpiece Naumkeag, The Old Manse, a Georgian style house that served as the center of Concord’s political, literary, and social revolutions, as well as the Crane Estate and many more architectural and landscape treasures found throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“The agreement provides financial opportunities to the Museum for its long-term growth and expansion. The two organizations will begin an operational integration over the coming year which should be complete by 2017,” the press release stated. This is a terrific announcement in the museum world and a very timely one given that small house and history museums all over the country constantly struggle to keep up with the times—both financially and culturally.