Dawn M. Spears on Public Art and Amplifying Indigenous Artistic Traditions in the Northeast

The term “public art” is difficult to define. Yet, the concept is usually connected to the history of a place and the community of people who inhabit it.

The Art of the Outside: Sonia S. Ralston on ‘Ghost Trees’

For over a century, Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain has been a “museum of trees” and a picturesque escape from the city. Because of the Arboretum’s long and storied history, there are many trees that used to be important to the Arboretum and the city which are no longer there — like a beech tree that succumbed to beech bark disease and a cork tree named “Corky” whose limb broke when a group of schoolchildren sat on it for a photo. Other trees at the Arboretum are still alive but stand much smaller than their original grandeur, such as a crabapple tree whose stump is still somehow miraculously alive — even after the rest of the tree fell over in a recent nor’easter.

The Art of the Outside: Lorraine E. Bubar as an Artist-in-Residence at Acadia National Park

In the mid-19th century, American painters from the art movement of the Hudson River School traveled into the nation’s wilderness to gather inspiration from the sweeping landscapes. These paintings were not only meant for enjoyment, but as a way to transform Americans’ perceptions about the West. Train companies used these romantic and realistic paintings — such as Albert Bierstadt’s landscapes of the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite Valley, and the Sierra Nevada — to entice people to move out west. In the 20th century, Ansel Adams’s black-and-white photographs of Yosemite also fostered advocacy for conservation.

Now, the National Park Service continues the legacy of these artists with over fifty artist-in-residence programs that provide lodging inside the park for visual artists, writers, and musicians hoping to stay for a few weeks. While at each national park, the artists contribute to park programming, such as speaker events and workshops, and gather inspiration for a piece of artwork which they donate to the park after their stay.