Public Art
Connecting Community through Public Art
In addition to programming exhibitions in our gallery spaces, The Umbrella Visual Arts program has continued to works with artists, curators and regional collaborators to create and install temporary art in public spaces that encourage community engagement, reflection, interaction and environmental appreciation. Below, learn about some recent past public art installations.
Art Ramble
Partnering with the Concord Division of Natural Resources, this annual collaborative project celebrates all the arts -- sculpture, poetry, dance, and dramatic readings encourage the intersection of art, nature, and community in a historic natural setting.These seasonal exhibtions take place in the Hapgood Wright Town Forest. NOTE: After a fall 2024 hiatus, a special edition of Art Ramble will be held in Spring of 2025 in association with Concord 250's commemoration of the semiquincentennial.
Go Out Doors: Neighbors
A evolving and growing extension of the Go Out Doors exhibition, Go Out Doors - Neighbors expands the original concept of artfully decorated doors in public spaces to connect neighboring towns, trails, and parks all across the region.
"Change is in the Air" Art Walk
Part of The Umbrella's spring 2021 Artfest, this self-guided exhibition featured outdoor, air-inspired artwork by regional artists that engages the element of Air -- whether banner, windchime, pinwheel, or any other creative forms -- installed in Concord Conservation Land sites townwide.
Go Out Doors 2020
An exhibition of doors painted by nine artists and installed on the West Concord section of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, inspired by the En Plein Air installation on NYC’s High Line, encourages healthful outdoors activity and provides inspiration, whimsy, irony, reflection, connection, curiosity, spirituality, and joy.
"Oh Go Ahead": Recycled Sculpture @ Millbrook Tarry
Artist and architect William Turville's annual sculptural event at Concord's DropOff SwapOff may have been canceled for the pandemic, but our friends at Concord Market and Trail's End invited him to create another giant, whimsical work of recycled art -- this time with naming help from our local and extended virtual community.
Picnic Table Cover Paintings
In August 2020, several Concord families gathered in shifts at The Umbrella Arts Center to paint scenes of “favorite Concord COVID-19 activities or destinations” to adorn picnic tables and outdoor dining parkets around town. Maintaining social distancing, family groups worked with the guidance of local artists from Village Art Room and The Umbrella, in partnership with the Town of Concord.
Earth Press Project: Witness
Conceived by noted New England artist Nancy Winship Milliken, part of a new Artist-in-Residence program with Minute Man National Historic Park, Earth Press Project: Witness is a site-specific, public engagement, environmental project imprinting words from communities across America representing a declaration of witnessing change. We are excited to collaborate with the team at MMNHP who believe that art can carry our stories, and is a powerful tool to bridge our past with our future. Looking forward to seeing how YOU and the public responds to the question "What change would you like to witness today as inspired by or in response to the events that took place on this historical landscape?"
Art & Agriculture: Four Seasons on Concord Farms
This 2016 year-long collaborative project between the Concord Agriculture Committee and the Arts & Environment Program brought local farms to forefront. Eleven juried artists were matched with 13 farms to follow the seasonal cycles of farm life and work. Each artist submitted at least one piece for each season for a three-month show in The Umbrella Gallery.
