Creating Sculptures on an Art Nature Spirit Trail

June 9-14 (Sunday-Friday)

The traditional way of learning in the arts was a willing student apprenticing with a master of the form on a one-to-one committed basis. Learning was by doing with someone who knew and loved what s/he was doing. Work as a studio associate with a master sculptor for an intense week of creative designing, fabrication, and installing of monumental scale sculptures, which will be made of metal, wood, stone, glass, fibers, plastics, and other durable materials. Evenings will consist of informal but engaging seminars on the work in progress, the life work each of the sculptors, and the entire field of sculpture. Most of the artists are professors, so they know how to teach as well as sculpt. The week will culminate in the installation and celebration of sculptures honoring the Earth and the mystery thereof. This is going to be an amazing experience.

A small group of artists have been selected to create a number of site-specific sculptures at pivotal points on Rowe's property. The artists have met at Rowe and found a site that speaks to them. Using their skill and vision, they're designing their sculpture over the long winter. From June 9 to 14 they'll complete the work and install it, working with a small group of studio associates. That could be you. With the sculptures in place, a trail between them will hopefully reveal itself.

Thomas Berry reminds us that we are children of nature and our souls need nature to experience awe, wonder, and the unity of all beings. Rowe's programs exemplify the belief that art, the sacred, and nature share profound affinities. The design, the art, the spirit, and the earth will allow the beauty and wisdom to emerge in reality.

Peter London dreamed up this idea, inspired by his long friendship with Prue and Doug. All three share serious enthusiasms about the sacred qualities of the natural world, they know how to make things happen, and they know how to have fun. The cost will be one-and-a-half times the programming and housing costs for a weekend at Rowe and we hope you'll join this unique event.

Doug Wilson is a Unitarian Universalist minister who's worked at RC&CC for half of his long life and Prue Berry is a professional landscape designer who's Director Emerita of RC&CC. Peter London is professor emeritus at Umass Dartmouth and is an artist, teacher, author, and pioneer in expressive art. The other artists are Christa Blatchford, Shannon Belthor, Dawne and Rolf Hoeg, Eric Wintala, Stacy Latt-Rumbaugh, and Shane Savage Rumbaugh, who excel in the production of expressive, highly crafted artwork, and are enthusiastic about the artistic and teaching dimensions of this enterprise.