In June 2025 deCordova opens Nature Sanctuary, an outdoor exhibition that explores distinctive relationships between the natural world and home. Spanning the Sculpture Park’s front lawn and beyond, this exhibition features original commissions and loans by six women artists: Venetia Dale, Kapwani Kiwanga, Joiri Minaya, Zohra Opoku, Kathy Ruttenberg, and Evelyn Rydz.

The artworks of Nature Sanctuary reveal contemporary sculptural directions that convey protection, refuge and relate to care and labor. Some of the installations explore relationships between craft and sculpture (created in metal, glass, or ceramic) and embrace natural phases of weathering and time.  Through their work, these artists consider the present and future ramifications of climate change, as well as deeper histories of land use, occupancy, as well as the movement of people, plants, and animals across homelands. Their projects also reveal contradictions inherent to a “nature sanctuary” and expose how the exclusion or displacement of living beings has been justified to protect the natural world.

Nature Sanctuary is framed by deCordova’s former identity as a family home as well as the museum’s integration within The Trustees, a land conservation organization where the term “nature sanctuary” relates to the protection of animal and plant life. The exhibition deepens awareness of deCordova’s “more than human” landscape and its many unique ecological and geological features. Programming and interpretation led by environmental caretakers will center these interconnections of art and place.

Organized by Sarah Montross, Chief Curator

Exhibition support generously provided by the Bolotnick Seaver Family Foundation, Next Generation Fund of the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, Jo Goldman, Holly and Roger Ketron, Mary Levin Koch, Patrick and Pamela Pedonti and Sophie Vandebroek and Jesus del Alamo.