LINCOLN, Mass. – A new outdoor exhibition that explores relationships between the natural world and ideas of home will open Thursday, June 5, at The Trustees’ deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln. Nature Sanctuary will feature new site-responsive commissions and loans by six contemporary women artists.
The featured artists in Nature Sanctuary are Venetia Dale, Kapwani Kiwanga, Joiri Minaya, Zohra Opoku, Kathy Ruttenberg, and Evelyn Rydz. Dale and Rydz are both Massachusetts-based artists, continuing deCordova’s support of artists from the region.
“Nature Sanctuary offers our public a way to experience deCordova’s art and landscape as deeply interconnected. The artworks respond to and emphasize their ecological surroundings and make us more aware of the ways humans shape and protect the natural environment,” shares Sarah Montross, Museum Director and Chief Curator of deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.
The exhibition is framed by deCordova’s past as a family home as well as its present-day integration within The Trustees, Massachusetts’ largest and the nation’s first conservation and preservation nonprofit.
Spanning the Sculpture Park’s front lawns and beyond, the new installations express refuge, care, and the shared protective relationships between humans and the natural world. The artists respond to past, present, and future ramifications of ecological change, as well as histories of land use and the movement of people, plants, and animals across homelands. Their projects reveal contradictions inherent to a “nature sanctuary” and expose how protecting the natural world has been used, at times, to justify the exclusion or displacement of living beings.
The exhibition will also broaden ecological awareness of deCordova’s landscape, which is home to diverse flora and fauna, including nesting hawks, snapping turtles, and monarch butterflies. Public programming and interpretation will focus on connections between art and place. Nature Sanctuary will be on view through Fall 2026.
Artworks in the Exhibition
Venetia Dale (Roslindale, Mass.) Within Time, 2025 – Dale works primarily in cast pewter and focuses on the often fragmented, intimate nature of care, domestic labor, and family life in her sculptures. For deCordova, she is creating her first outdoor commission, a pewter sculpture of cast house plant clippings situated between two “snags” or upright dead trees that provide vital habitat for many plants and animals. The houseplant leaves were donated by deCordova staff, volunteers, and families of the on-campus Lincoln Nursery School. The design of the sculpture was inspired by the ornate furnishings of Julian and Elizabeth Dana de Cordova’s original home, which is now the museum building. Dale’s sculpture carries the stories and forms of the donated plants and reassembles them into a collective expression of those who care for deCordova and its living beings.
Kapwani Kiwanga (Berlin, Germany & Paris, France), On Growth, 2023 – This sculpture, originally commissioned by The High Line in New York City, features an oversized coiling fern set within a shimmering multi-colored glass chamber. To create this prismatic artwork, Kiwanga researched Wardian cases, a predecessor to modern day terrariums which were used to transport botanical specimens from overseas for display in European cities. Set within deCordova’s lush landscape, On Growth reflects deCordova’s environment as many of the surrounding trees and plant specimens were also transported from afar to this terrain.
Joiri Minaya (New York, N.Y.) Tropticon II, 2025 – Drawing on histories of collecting and displaying so-called “exotic” plants from the Caribbean in the United States and beyond. Minaya’s Tropticon II is a custom greenhouse covered in manipulated photographs taken by the artist at botanical gardens and greenhouses in the Greater Boston area. Concerned with how tropical landscapes are viewed upon and stereotyped by outsiders, Minaya cloaks the traditionally transparent greenhouse with botanical images that are opaque and partially inscrutable.
Zohra Opoku (Accra, Ghana), Self-Portraits, 2015/2024 – Opoku presents her Self-Portraits series throughout the sculpture park. This body of work shows the artist “disappearing into nature,” her face and body partially hidden by foliage and vegetation. The series evolved during Opoku’s travels as she deepened her understanding of her African identity. Opoku says, “When traveling to London for the first time, I felt like I could just disappear. I think that’s where I started to realize that what was missing for me in my upbringing was a connection to my African background. It was always a driving force, this question of identity.”
Kathy Ruttenberg (Woodstock, N.Y.) A Snail’s Pace, 2018 – Ruttenberg creates whimsical ceramic sculptures that conjoin human (primarily female), animal, and plant-based characters. Her works point to poignant qualities of the human condition while urging sympathetic connection to the natural world. A Snail’s Pace is a life-sized female figure crouched within a translucent snail shell. Ruttenberg says, “The sculpture captures the moment of withdrawal when the cellphone is put down and the computer is unplugged. Perhaps it is better to be in the ‘bubble,’ moving like a snail, protect from life’s hectic pace.”
Evelyn Rydz (Boston, Mass.) Holding Water, 2025 – A new commission by Rydz is centered on the idea of a “water sanctuary” and is inspired by deCordova’s proximity to nearby rivers and waterways, including Flint’s Pond. The project features a large vessel adorned with the hands of environmental caretakers cast in glass. The project draws on Rydz’s ongoing exploration into issues of human migration, ecology, and inequities in access to clean water.
Public programs related to Nature Sanctuary include:
Holding Water: Artist Workshop with Evelyn Rydz, Saturday, July 19, 1 – 3 p.m. — An immersive, hands-on workshop in which participants will explore the intersection of art and the environment under the guidance of artist Evelyn Rydz. Inspired by the installation Holding Water, participants will engage with themes of water conservation, sustainability, and the natural world through creative expression.
Library in the Landscape: Nature Sanctuary, Two Sessions: Saturday, July 12, and Saturday, August 16, 10 a.m.– 12 p.m. — Library in the Landscape welcomes young minds to enjoy live storybook reading and hands-on art making inspired by Nature Sanctuary. Library in the Landscape is an interactive experience designed to spark imagination, foster curiosity, and inspire a love for both art and reading.
Ellie Irons and Aubrie James, Land Portal, 2025
Coinciding with the opening of Nature Sanctuary in June, artists Ellie Irons and Aubrie James will debut a walking tour and published resource titled Land Portal. This commissioned publication will guide visitors through some of deCordova’s lesser known ecological and geological features, including unique tree specimens, remnants of earlier agricultural land use, and sites where water flows throughout the grounds. Irons and James note that “Our goal is to foster a sense of place, in space and in time, by calling attention to the ‘background’ — the vast, alive, and ever-transforming ‘negative space’ that makes up the parts of the museum and park that are not sculptures or artworks.”
Exhibition support generously provided by the Artist’s Resource Trust of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Bolotnick Seaver Family Foundation, Nathaniel Saltonstall Arts Fund, Next Generation Fund of the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, Linda Hammett Ory and Andrew Ory Charitable Trust, Kelly L. Dunn, Jo Goldman, Marjorie D. and Nicolas P. Greville, Holly and Roger Ketron, Mary Levin Koch, Kathleen O’Hara, Caroline and Jeffrey Paduch, Patrick and Pamela Pedonti, Valentine Talland and Nagesh Mahanthappa, and Sophie Vandebroek and Jesus del Alamo.
More About The Trustees
Founded by landscape architect Charles Eliot in 1891, The Trustees has, for more than 130 years, been a catalyst for important ideas, endeavors, and progress in Massachusetts. As a steward of distinctive and dynamic places of both historic and cultural value, The Trustees is one of the oldest preservation and conservation organizations, and its landscapes and landmarks continue to inspire discussion, innovation, and action today as they did in the past. We are a nonprofit, supported by members, friends and donors and our more than 120 sites are destinations for residents, members, and visitors alike, welcoming over 2 million guests annually.
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