BOSTON, MASS.- The Trustees, Massachusetts’ largest conservation and preservation nonprofit, announces the launch of a two-year outdoor art initiative with installations by renowned artists Sam Durant and Jeppe Hein to open this summer at two of its cultural properties. The Trustees, whose 115 properties include some of Massachusetts’ most scenic and historic sites, such as the Old Manse in Concord, World’s End in Hingham and Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, is working with independent curator Pedro Alonzo to present the two-year art initiative, titled Art and The Landscape, aimed at enhancing and enriching visitor experience through site-specific outdoor art. The artists and sites for 2017 will be announced later this year.

Sam Durant: The Meeting House
In summer 2016, Los Angeles-based artist Sam Durant will install a site-specific, participatory installation at The Trustees’ Old Manse, located in Concord, Massachusetts. The Old Manse is a National Historic Landmark built in 1770 and former home and gathering place for politicians, thinkers, and transcendentalists including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Durant, known for multimedia works that take a critical view on our social, political, and cultural tropes and often reference American history, will create a structure on-site in the North Field near Old Manse that will serve as a meeting place for the local and surrounding community to discuss and debate relevant issues of the day. The Meeting House, whose structure refers directly to homes of the first emancipated African men and women in Concord, seeks to offer a unique way to address difficult issues such as slavery and segregation and their continuing impact on today’s society. The structure will engage with the public during three lyceum events on August 13, September 24 and October 15, each with a different theme, and additional related programming events. The Old Manse is located next to the Old North Bridge and Minuteman National Historical Park in Concord, where the first revolutionary battle was fought, and will engage the more than two million combined visitors who visit the park each year.

Jeppe Hein: World's End Mirror Labyrinth
Berlin and Copenhagen-based artist, Jeppe Hein, will create a site-specific project at The Trustees’ World's End property in Hingham, Massachusetts this fall. The artist’s work often combines elements of humor with the traditions of minimalism and conceptual art. For Art and The Landscape, Hein draws inspiration from the natural beauty and landscape at World's End, which features a combination of Frederick Law Olmsted-designed and natural landscapes with spectacular views of the Boston harbor and skyline. At World’s End, Hein will install a reflective labyrinth installation, made of mirrored posts of differing heights, whose structure mimics the shape of the surrounding drumlin formations. Visitors can walk through the labyrinth, touch the mirrored panels, and create their own photographic interpretations of “art and the landscape.” The sculpture will be installed in August and will be on-site for a full year, allowing visitors to experience the transformation of the piece in different seasons. Trustees will host an opening reception with the artist on Sunday, September 18, 2016.