It’s no surprise that 2020 hasn’t been the best year for wandering. Massachusetts was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March, just in time for spring. Since then, parks and museums have largely been closed, and shows and events canceled or moved online.
But now that there are far fewer new cases of the virus in the state, some places are starting to reopen with restrictions.
In mid-June, I was excited to get an email from The Trustees announcing they had reopened the grounds of some of their parks, including the deCordova Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA. Aisha and I moved to Medford in April (yes, mid-pandemic), so now it was a short drive away.
Finally, a way to get outside and see some art while still social distancing!
We had to reserve our ticket online beforehand and select which hour we would be arriving. This way, they could stagger the number of visitors. Ticketing was through Eventbrite and super easy.
The deCordova Museum itself (an awesome castle-esque brick building with viney sides) was still closed, so admission was only $15 per car to get into the sculpture park. Face masks required. No bathrooms. And please, no touching the sculptures (so said the signs posted everywhere across the park). Disinfecting sculptures must be a challenge!
There were lots of people on the grounds of deCordova, which at first was unnerving, but the park is so big, everyone could and did stay well far apart. Many folks were just sitting and relaxing on the main lawn, enjoying being outside on a nice day. Lots of families with young kids who had to refrain from climbing up on some of the sculptures (some seemed unable to resist).
The main thing that I missed was having a print map of the park to know where all the sculptures are and to learn more about them. I used the deCordova’s digital tour and map on my phone, but I find it harder to see and follow that way. There may be some sculptures we missed, but that’s okay, we saw so many, and not having a map at all times forced me to embrace the wandering.
Here are my attempted descriptions of some of sculptures we saw:
A large panel of horsehair / re-claimed cello strings blowing in the breeze
A series of what look like glass doors but were more likely clear plastic
Turrets made out of cloth, so they look more like tents
A copper goose with a golf ball in its bill
Pots, pans, and plastic fruit all hanging from steel hooks
A crumpled crochet blanket but WAIT it’s made out of bronze!
Fake jello molds with moths and bugs on them (OBSESSED)
Something called “Donut with 3 Balls”
Oh! And we saw a snake! Or rather, I saw the snake, then pretended to have not seen the snake, but Aisha saw right through me and I had to tell her about it. But maybe it was just an elaborate moving sculpture! Right?! :)