Artdoors Creatively Interpret MMNHP Landmarks in New Public Art Collaboration
November 1, 2021 by Rachel Olson
Artists Respond to Famed Park Sites, Connecting Park to The Umbrella's Expanding "Go Out Doors" Regional Project
An exciting new public art exhibition has been installed in the Minute Man National Historical Park this month, in collaboration with The Umbrella Arts Center.
Curated by Monkeyhouse, Go Out Doors – Minute Man National Historical Park brings unique, Park-inspired artistic perspectives to The Umbrella's "Go Out Doors – Neighbors" regional exhibition of artfully upcycled, painted doors, installed in towns throughout Battle Road, Metrowest and beyond.
The doors feature designs inspired by, responding to, and creatively interpreting themes from three major sites in the Park, selected in consultation with Park interpretive staff.
New Jersey-based painter Yetti Frenkel was inspired by The Wayside, home of authors; mixed media artist BARD found reconnection to nature in famed Buttrick Gardens above the Old North Bridge; while at Minute Man Visitor Center, Cassandre Charles found herself imagining the life of Prince Estabrook, an enslaved Revolutionary soldier injured in battle on April 19, 1775.
The project is the Park’s second major collaboration with The Umbrella, following 2019’s “Earth Press Project: Witness,” a large-scale sculptural installation by MMNHP’s first Artist-in-Residence, Nancy Winship Milliken. It is supported in part by The Foundation for Metrowest.
Originally inspired by the En Plein Air door exhibit on NYC’s High Line, Go Out Doors has expanded from The Umbrella's original summer 2020 exhibition in West Concord into a wide collaborative public art campaign, with thematically similar installations cropping up along trails, open spaces, business districts and cultural attractions in Arlington, Lexington, Newton, Medford, Carlisle, Westford, and others. Monkeyhouse is an award-winning, Boston-based nonprofit that connects communities to choreography.
Background, wayfinding, photos, information about the artists and more may be found at TheUmbrellaArts.org/DoorsMM and TheUmbrellaArts.org/Doors .
