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• Nature Sanctuary

  • When
    16 Sep 2025
  •  
    1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
  • Location
    deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road Lincoln, MA 01773
  • Spaces left
    20

  Register

  

  Join MA-NMWA for a very special tour of the outdoor exhibition Nature Sanctuary led by Sarah Montross, Chief Curator & Museum Director of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. We will also be privileged to hear from participating artists Venetia "Tia" Dale and Evelyn Rydz, speaking in front of their works in the exhibition. 

  Nature Sanctuary is an outdoor exhibition that explores relationships between the natural world and ideas of home. Spanning the Sculpture Park’s front lawn and beyond, this exhibition features original, site-inspired 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 express refuge, care, and shared protective relationship between humans and the natural world.   Through their work, these artists consider past, present, and future ramifications of climate change, as well as deeper histories of land use and the migration 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.

  MA-NMWA Supporting Members will have early booking privileges, from August 1-14, for this special opportunity. Registration will open to all Members and Guests on August 14, 2025.

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• Rachel Ruysch: Artist, Naturalist and Pioneer

  • When
    30 Sep 2025
  •  
    11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • Spaces left
    15

  
  

  Join MA-NMWA for a tour of “Rachel Ruysch: Artist, Naturalist, and Pioneer” led by Dr. Antien Knaap, Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

  “Rachel Ruysch: Artist, Naturalist, and Pioneer” is the first comprehensive solo exhibition dedicated to the artist. It brings together 35 of her finest paintings from museums and private lenders across the United States and Europe alongside plant and insect specimens as well as work by other female artists, including Anna Ruysch, Maria Sibylla Merian, and Alida Withoos. Seeing these provocative juxtapositions, visitors can gain insight into the central role women played in the production of scientific knowledge in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries.

  As global trade routes expanded in the 17th century, thousands of new plant specimens arrived in the Netherlands for cultivation in greenhouses and botanical gardens. Ruysch was among the first artists to introduce new species, from passionflowers to cacti, into her flower still lifes. Merging art and science, these paintings are far from just decorative; they’re riddles, hints of a deeper understanding of the natural world. They speak of survival and loss, the delicate balance between beauty and violence, and the deeper narratives of colonial expansion unfolding beneath the surface. 

  More details on registration for this event, for both MA-NMWA Members and Guests, to follow.

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