News from Across the State

Waterfront Ambassadors Return to Boston for Summer 2025

The Trustees Waterfront Ambassadors program immerses youth in the environmental, social, and cultural dimensions of Boston’s waterfront. Through a place-based summer curriculum that blends fieldwork, workshops, public engagement, and reflection, the program creates opportunities for youth to learn, lead, and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

This year’s curriculum was guided by seven weekly themes, grounded in four pillars: environmental justice, stewardship, community engagement, and professional development. Each week layered hands-on experiences such as shoreline education, gardening, and tree care with storytelling-based career panels, coalition-building with other youth programs, and creative youth-led projects.

In addition to countless community partnerships and field trips to Trustees properties, ambassadors curated and hosted their own community events. This included a Pop-Up Series at the East Boston Public Library where all activities, educational components, and outreach strategies were youth-designed. The team partnered with the Veronica Robles Cultural Center’s Viva Colombia festival to distribute free sneakers—generously donated by Converse—to community members, and tabled at East Boston’s farmers markets where they engaged the public through interactive games and climate education.

By structuring the program to balance service, education, and youth leadership, the 2025 cohort not only gained environmental skills but also saw themselves as educators, advocates, and leaders within their own neighborhoods.

Kessily Jacome, 18, of Revere reflected, “The combination of laughter, learning, and bonding with my peers made this program one of the most memorable summers of my life, and it reminded me that change happens when we care for both people and the places we share.”

Celebrating Elizabeth Freeman in Sheffield

244 years ago, Elizabeth Freeman used the newly ratified Massachusetts Constitution to sue for her freedom from Colonel John Ashley and won. The Trustees celebrated her landmark legal case—which contributed to the abolishment of slavery throughout the state—with a joyful day of reflection, learning, and community this August. Local artist Wanda Houston performed on the Ashley House’s lawn with remarks and readings by Dr. Ousmane Power-Greene and artist/activist Reginald Evans. The Sheffield Historical Society and Mumbet’s Freedom Farm organized activities, and visitors partook in a reading trail featuring Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence. Guided tours through the recently updated historic home and adjacent Elizabeth Freeman Exhibit were also offered. Both spaces now expound upon the stories and information previously shared thanks to new research from Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Fellow Livy Scott. “As we learned more, it was clear we had to make updates to the exhibition,” said Scott. “We want to make the Ashley House a space where Elizabeth’s story and the history of slavery in rural Massachusetts are best told.” Dive deeper into the revamped exhibition and historic home at TheTrustees.org/ElizabethFreeman2025

Environmental Internship Engages Vineyard Teens in Conservation Work

The Claire Saltonstall Education Program Environmental Training Internship Program returned for a ninth summer on Martha’s Vineyard. The immersive internship experience connects a small group of local teens to conservation work with a focus on ecology, stewardship, horticulture, and environmental education. This summer, four high-school students joined The Trustees for the program.

At the beginning of the program, The Aquinnah Cultural Center (ACC) hosted an orientation day for the Trustees interns and island conservation organization partners. Brad Lopes, the Education & Outreach Coordinator for the ACC, led the day. A goal of this orientation was to discuss the responsibility of being stewards of land that is the ancestral home of the Wampanoag people.

New to the program this year were weekly field trips, in partnership with several other organizations across the island. In addition to the two days a week spent working with Trustees staff, students spent a third day with another organization, learning from their expertise in specific fields, such as biodiversity and water quality monitoring, native plant care, and island history. Partner organizations in addition to the ACC, included Biodiversity Works, Great Pond Foundation, Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, Island Grown Initiative, Polly Hill Arboretum, and the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.

“We organized this connection and collaboration to encourage high school students to engage in the conservation movement and spark newfound passions, and I think it achieved just that,” shared Molly Peach Mayhew, Islands Education Manager.

Alison Croney Moses Awarded 2025 Rappaport Art Prize

deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum recently announced that Boston-based sculptor Alison Croney Moses has been awarded the 2025 Rappaport Art Prize. Trained as a furniture maker, the wooden objects Moses creates reach out to your senses: the smell of cedar, the color of honey, the gentle curve beckoning to be touched. Her inspiration often comes from the materials and processes themselves, capturing universal forms and impressions from nature and the human body. “I am honored to receive [the Prize] and truly humbled to be included in a roster of such talented previous recipients,” said Moses. “As I continue to build a full-time art practice, the financial support from the Prize is invaluable and will directly contribute to my ability to continue to make meaningful work.” The Rappaport Art Prize was established in 2000 and endowed in perpetuity in 2010 by The Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation to celebrate the achievements of New England contemporary artists. Moses will give her Artist Lecture at deCordova in Lincoln on Wednesday, October 22. Those interested in attending can register for free at TheTrustees.org/RappaportLecture