"Exhaale! Art in the Park 2021 Biennial

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Elm Park, Worcester, Massachusetts

August 15 - November 30, 2021

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We welcome you to historic Elm Park and “Exhaale” Art in the Park 2021. Public funds were used to purchase the land to establish a public park in 1854, making Elm Park one of the oldest public parks in America. It is included in the Elm Park Historic District and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The park contains elements designed between 1909 and 1940s by the renowned Olmsted firm.

 

Artist Willie Cole, Samuel Adams, Curator deCordova Sculpture Park, and Museum and Ling-Wen Tsai, Professor of Sculpture and Foundation Maine College of Art selected twenty-five sculptures by New England and Mid-Atlantic State artists for this year’s exhibit. “Many of the works in the 2021 edition of Art in the Park are abstract. They engage with color and form but do not reference recognizable things from the tangible world. And yet, even in abstraction, there is something that seems pulled from the natural world.” Samuel Adam, Curator DeCordova Museum and 2021 AIP Juror.

 

We include “Engage at 6 Feet” designed by Student Artist Landa Nguyen, & Graphic Art Students at Forest Grove Middle School with the assistance of art instructor Jason Harthan collaborated with Architect and Public Artist Matthais Neumann to create the interactive sculpture. The piece is the result of Art in the Park, Worcester’s ongoing partnership with Worcester Public School Cultural Arts Liaison, Timmary O’Leary.

 

“In a world ablaze with wildfires, overtaken with hurricanes and flooding, hybrid presentations, the intersection of art and the landscape is especially charged. “Exhaale” Art in the Park, 2021 exhibition offers a glimpse into the field of contemporary sculpture and demonstrates the ways in which artists today are innovating with new materials and methods. But it also grounds and centers us within a longer historical arc. A collective consciousness emerges in many of these artworks, inviting us to think deeply and creatively about our relationship to our natural environment. “ Samuel Adam, Curator DeCordova Museum and 2021 AIP Juror The 2021 exhibit is on display from August 15 – November 30, 2021 and available for viewing during the park’s hours. Bring your family and friends and come often! We hope you enjoy the show!

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For more information, visit our Facebook page!

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The Art in the Park exhibit was created to present large-scale sculptures to the general public in designed cultural landscapes while enriching the lives of those that live, work, study, play, and visit spaces and places in Central Massachusetts. The exhibit provides public art sculptors with opportunities to have their work reviewed by arts professionals and exhibited. It adds to the arts literacy of visitors and the community and gives a public arts dimension to the vision of Worcester as a place where culture shines! The exhibition debuted in 2008.

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Public art has the power to energize our public spaces, arouse our senses, stimulate thinking, and transform the places where we live, work, study, and play into welcoming spaces that invite pause and interaction.

 

“Once you notice artwork in the - landscape, you begin to make observations: that you are close or distant, larger or smaller than it, and perhaps that you like it or not. As you get closer, you may circle it and notice textures that you could not discern from far away … this experience is collective. If you hear children laughing and jumping around the artwork, it might seem more playful than if you were viewing it in isolation or inside a museum.” Samuel Adams, Curator DeCordova Museum and 2021 AIP Juror. 

 

Art in the Park, Worcester presents the exhibit with support from the City of Worcester’s Parks & Forestry Department, the Worcester Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Greater Worcester Community Foundation, Central Massachusetts Crane Service, UnitedWay of Central Massachusetts, corporations, foundations, individuals, and volunteers.

 

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Be sure to check out the article, Art in the Park:

A Testimony to the impact of public art in Worcester, written by Project Director Gloria D. Hall in Gateway Magazine to learn more of the back story and history.