Sculpture park unveils six new works in “Nature Sanctuary”

(Editor’s note: this is a slightly edited press release from the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.)

A new outdoor exhibition that explores relationships between the natural world and ideas of home opened in June at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Nature Sanctuary features new site-responsive commissions and loans by six contemporary women artists.

The featured artists in Nature Sanctuary are Venetia Dale, Kapwani Kiwanga, Joiri Minaya, Zohra Opoku, Kathy Ruttenberg, and Evelyn Rydz. Dale and Rydz are both Massachusetts-based artists, continuing deCordova’s support of artists from the region.

“Nature Sanctuary offers our public a way to experience deCordova’s art and landscape as deeply interconnected. The artworks respond to and emphasize their ecological surroundings and make us more aware of the ways humans shape and protect the natural environment,” shares Sarah Montross, museum director and chief curator of deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.

Spanning the sculpture park’s front lawns and beyond, the new installations express refuge, care, and the shared protective relationships between humans and the natural world. The artists respond to past, present, and future ramifications of ecological change, as well as histories of land use and the movement of people, plants, and animals across homelands. Their projects reveal contradictions inherent to a “nature sanctuary” and expose how protecting the natural world has been used, at times, to justify the exclusion or displacement of living beings.  

The exhibition also broadens ecological awareness of deCordova’s landscape, which is home to diverse flora and fauna, including nesting hawks, snapping turtles, and monarch butterflies. Public programming and interpretation will focus on connections between art and place. Nature Sanctuary will be on view through Fall 2026.

Artworks in the exhibition

For details on the pieces and artists, click on an artwork’s title.

• Within Time (Venetia Dale)
• On Growth (Kapwani Kiwanga)
• Tropticon II (Joiri Minaya)
• Self-Portraits (Zohra Opoku)
• A Snail’s Pace (Kathy Ruttenberg)
• Holding Water (Evelyn Rydz)

Public programs related to Nature Sanctuary include:

Library in the Landscape: Nature Sanctuary
Saturday, July 12 and Saturday, August 16, 10:00am–noon
Library in the Landscape welcomes young minds to enjoy live storybook reading and hands-on art making inspired by Nature Sanctuary. Library in the Landscape is an interactive experience designed to spark imagination, foster curiosity, and inspire a love for both art and reading. Register for July 12 or August 16.

Holding Water: Artist Workshop with Evelyn Rydz
Saturday, July 19 from 1:00-3:00pm
An immersive, hands-on workshop in which participants will explore the intersection of art and the environment under the guidance of artist Evelyn Rydz. Inspired by the installation Holding Water, participants will engage with themes of water conservation, sustainability, and the natural world through creative expression. Register here.