The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

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Sally Ride performance at library on Wednesday

Actress Cheryl Faye portrays astronaut Sally Ride.

Sally Ride is glued to the classroom television as astronaut John Glenn blasts off into space. “I want to do that,” she quietly says to herself, only to be reminded that girls can’t be astronauts. Her insatiable curiosity leads to a passion for science, and she eventually becomes America’s first woman astronaut and a passionate advocate for STEM. Actress Sheryl Faye brings Ride to life in a one-woman performance on Wednesday, Aug. 7 from 4–5 p.m. at the Lincoln Public Library. No registration required.

August 12 legal clinic canceled

The legal clinic for elders that was scheduled for August 12 has been canceled.

Events at deCordova

Play in the Park
Wednesdays, Aug. 7 and 21 from 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. (drop-in, rain or shine)
Play, experiment, and engineer together in the 30-acre Sculpture Park. Collaborate to construct large-scale temporary structures in response to deCordova’s art and landscape. (If it’s raining, we’ll move inside the museum.) For families with children of all ages. FREE with admission or membership. Learn more.

MAKEmobile
Sundays, Aug. 11 and 25 from 1–3 p.m. (drop-in, rain or shine)
Take your imagination for a spin with activities that explore artistic and material processes through amusing prompts and challenges. The MAKEmobile is fueled with surprising supplies and exciting ideas each time it cruises into the park. Learn more.

Sculpture Park tour: the domestic and the natural
Thursday, Aug. 15 from 12–1 p.m.
Join curatorial assistant Elizabeth Upenieks on an outdoor tour focused on how contemporary artists use everyday materials found inside and outside the home as inspiration for their sculptural forms. This tour focuses on sculptures added to the park this summer, giving a firsthand look at some of the newest pieces on view. Free with admission or membership; click to sign up.

Neoprene workshop with artist Leeza Meksin
Saturday, Aug. 24 from 2–5 p.m. (drop-in)
Join PLATFORM artist Leeza Meksin for an all-ages outdoor workshop exploring neoprene, the popular fabric used for scuba gear, shapewear, mouse pads, and more. Practice new ways of testing your creativity with different fabrics and learn more about Meksin’s new “Turret Tops” installation. Free with admission or membership; click to sign up.

Council on Aging activities in August

End your week with friends at a musical jazz lunch
August 1 at 12 p.m.
Celebrate the end of the week by grabbing a table at Bemis while the Lincoln Traditional Jazz Band serenades you with familiar good old tunes. Bring a bag lunch and, if you like, food purchased already prepared at the store to share. The COA provides beverages and dessert. The band will play on Thursday, Aug. 1 starting at noon.

You’ve been selected…
August 5 at 1 p.m.
To drop by and visit with a member of the Board of Selectmen. Bring your ideas, feedback, questions, or favorite Lincoln anecdote. Whether you stop by for a minute or an hour, the Selectmen hope to see you from 1–2 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 5.

Free beginning meditation
August 7 at 10 a.m.
Come to free beginners’ meditation sessions to be held August 7, 14, and 21 at 10 a.m. for a half-hour at Bemis Hall. Please join us if you’re wondering what others find in meditating. Meditation opens the channels of our natural states of peace, joy, health, and aids in decreasing the negative effects of aging. Experienced meditation teacher Lynne LaSpina will begin each session with a few minutes of stretching muscles to relax, and breathing exercise to help focus before meditating for about 10 minutes. Lynne will offer walking meditation for those who find it difficult to sit quietly for 10 minutes. For more information, call Lynne at 908-892-2408 or llas902551@aol.com.

Summer salad lunch and nutrition tips from The Commons
August 7 at 12 p.m.
Summer is the perfect time to enjoy the bounty and nutrition of nature. Come to Bemis Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 7 at noon for a delicious lunch of summer salads specially prepared by the chef at The Commons in Lincoln. Taste familiar salads made in innovative ways as well as new salads to try for the first time! Sadie Daniels, a Registered Dietician at the Commons in Lincoln, will discuss summer produce and how to make salads as healthy as possible, as well as answer your general nutrition questions. Please sign up by Wednesday, July 31 by calling the COA at 781-259-8811. [Read more…] about Council on Aging activities in August

News acorns

Minuteman Library Crawl on Aug. 1

Visit multiple libraries in the area on the 2019 Minuteman Library Crawl on Thursday, August 1 from 1–5 p.m. It’s a 21st-century scavenger hunt; the challenge is to visit as many as you can and take a picture of yourself with a designated item in each library. At the Lincoln Public Library, it’s the Lincoln Library quilt and/or the “Let the Rumpus Begin” bench. If you go to at least five libraries, you’ll get a prize (one per group). Each library will have handouts and giveaways as well as refreshments. All ages are welcome to participate in this self-guided tour that starts and ends wherever you like. Click here for your “passport” detailing the items to photograph n each library along with their addresses.

“Black Robe” screening at library

The next film to be shown by the Lincoln Library Film Society will be Black Robe (1991, rated R) on Thursday, August 1 at 6 p.m. in the Tarbell Room. A young Jesuit priest seeks to convert the Indian tribes in Canada while also trying to survive the harsh winter. Directed by Robert Beresford, starring Lothaire Bluteau, Aden Young, and Sandrine Holt. 

Look for disability letters from the VA

By now, all veterans collecting disability compensation from the Veterans Administration (VA) should have received their “money letters.” This letter, which states the percentage of compensation and the dollar amount of money the VA will pay this year, is the basis for obtaining the Veterans Property Tax Abatement for Lincoln taxes. Exemptions run from $800 to $2,000, with most veterans receiving exemptions falling into the $800 range. Some dependents whose spouses died as a result of injuries or disease contracted in a war zone will receive total property tax exemption. If you have any questions,  please call Carolyn Bottum from the Council on Aging at 781-259-8811. She will take your contact information and have Lincoln’s Veterans Services Officer be in touch with you.

Yarn corridor invites walkers to explore Lincoln pathway

Lincoln Planning Department senior volunteer Gary Davis and summer intern Emily Glass walk along the yarn corridor.  

The new Lincoln Yarn Corridor installed by Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary aims to offer an unexpected place for contemplation or nature play on the walk from Lincoln Station to the farm.

Designed in support of the town’s effort to highlight the destinations that are accessible on foot from Lincoln Station, the colorful installation ties together the themes of the nature of the surrounding area with the sheep and wool of Drumlin Farm and serves as a point of interest on the walk from Lincoln Station to the farm.

The hand-woven yarn corridor winds among and within trees along the south sidewalk of Lincoln Road across from the Police and Fire Department. Starting from the trailhead at the new kiosk next to the commuter parking lot, walkers can follow the new wayfinding signs all the way to Drumlin Farm, with stops along the way at Codman Farm, Codman House and the new art installation. 

As the materials in the exhibit age, volunteers will work with the farm (following its philosophy of “sustainable interpretation”) to refresh the corridor, eventually letting the exhibit degrade naturally until it’s time to replace it with another installation around a different nature/art theme.

New outdoor artwork at deCordova

The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum has unveiled several new outdoor works ranging from small-scale bronze pieces in Alice’s Garden to large-scale commissions on the park’s main lawns to two monumental pieces that will be installed by the community in July and August in collaboration with a visiting artist. All sculptures are on loan and temporary, allowing deCordova to offer a constantly evolving landscape of art and nature for visitors.

Four of the sculptures were installed in the spring and two will be installed in July and August. On view now:

David Nash, “Spiral” (2014)

Nash consciously invokes earth, water, fire, and wind when transforming his earlier wooden sculpture, as he floats them down a river, chars their surface, or leaves them in the elements for decades. His incorporation of bronze casting as part of this practice continues themes of change, decay, and alteration, especially as he melts and solders metal. As some of Nash’s early wooden works begin to decay naturally, bronze versions offer a method of preserving their forms for posterity, while not interfering in the original wooden objects’ physical conditions

Michelle Grabner, “Untitled” (2018)

“Untitled” is part of a series of cast bronze sculptures of worn, knitted, and crocheted blankets. It transposes fiber to bronze, plush to hard, droopy to erect, warm to cold, and functional item to display object. The humility of Untitled’s formlessness lends the work a sense of irony. By appropriating bronze for a subject as sentimental and quotidian as a used blanket, Grabner throws open the tradition of cast-bronze sculpture, raising questions about why we immortalize certain subjects and how we determine which artifacts are disposable. At deCordova, “Untitled” is featured among trees, shrubs, rocks, and illusionistic sculptures in Alice’s Garden that similarly evoke familiar forms and textures from everyday life.

PLATFORM 24: Wardell Milan, “Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow” (2013/2019) and B. Wurtz, “Kitchen Trees” (2018)
See “News acorns” in the Lincoln Squirrel (June 19, 2019). Also see the September 26 event with Milan below.

Coming up

Marren Hassinger, “Monument 3 (Standing Rectangle)” and “Monument 6 (Square)” (2018) — community installation on July 24–26 on the Entrance Lawn
Marren Hassinger’s “Monuments” envision a community coming together to create art with materials that surround us. Continuing her lifelong inquiry into the relationship of sculpture and nature, their installation requires volunteers to clean, braid, and insert branches within the wire structure of her large forms. The work will be completed in the park over the course of three days by visitors who sign up to volunteer in shifts (click here for details and registration). The artist will be on site to assist in the installation on July 26.   

PLATFORM 25: Leeza Meksin, “Turret Tops” (2019) — coming August 19 to the South Lawn

For “Turrets Tops,” an original outdoor commission, Leeza Meksin will create two life-sized replicas of deCordova’s iconic museum building turrets in the park. Draping these towering conical forms with vibrantly colored neoprene, Meksin combines textile patterns and ornamental architectural details to articulate connections between the fashions we use to cover our bodies and the dwellings we inhabit. The installation encourages visitors to recognize assumptions about clothing and gender, architecture and ornament that filter into our daily lives.

Also see the August 24 workshop with Meksin below.

Related programs

Neoprene workshop with artist Leeza Meksin
Saturday, Aug. 24, 2–5 p.m.
Join PLATFORM artist Leeza Meksin for an all-ages outdoor workshop exploring neoprene, the popular fabric used for scuba gear, shape wear, mouse pads, and much more. Practice new ways of testing your creativity with different fabrics and learn more about Meksin’s new “Turret Tops” installation. Free with admission or membership; register online here.

Picnic and conversation with Wardell Milan
Thursday, Sept. 26, 12–1 p.m.
Join artist Wardell Milan for a picnic and conversation in the park, where we will channel the pastoral energy from his billboard commission “Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Hill.” Learn about Milan’s process and inspirational sources, from the modernist photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Nature.” Please bring your own lunch. Free with admission or membership; register online here.

“New Horizon” at deCordova features art, music, food, and conversation

The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum will host “Doug Aitken: New Horizon,” a nomadic day-long artwork installation, on Saturday, July 20.

“New Horizon” is a series of live events at Trustees properties across the state. From 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m. at the deCordova, there will be art-making activities for all ages, a sculpture quest, and food and drink. From 5–9 p.m. (separate admission), guest speakers will address selected themes about the future of urbanization, transportation, the environment, art, and digital technology. As evening approaches, ticket holders will gather around the hot air balloon to watch as the reflective orb transforms into a generative light sculpture that responds to live musical performances.

The deCordova event will include offerings from a variety of food trucks and Notch Brewing Traveling Biergarten, and music by Julie Byrne, Juilanna Barwick, and Mary Lattimore. The evening conversation will focus on “The Future of Information” with Gideon Lichfield, editor-in-chief of MIT Technology Review, and Jeneé Osterheldt, Boston Globe culture writer. Confronted with fake news and information bubbles, how do traditional media companies become platforms for communities to address the challenges society faces in a more equitable and inclusive manner?

To visit the deCordova on July 20, tickets to Family Day or the evening happening will be required. Parking for both events will be off-site  at 1601 Trapelo Rd. in Waltham with shuttles running all day. Click here for tickets and shuttle information.

Council on Aging activities in July

Sip and paint a masterpiece by the numbers
July 3 at 10 a.m.
Come “sip and paint” with some nonalcoholic wine while you “paint by the numbers.” The first of four sessions will be on Wednesday, July 3 at 10 a.m. at Bemis Hall. The COA will provide the paint-by-number kits. The class is almost full, but call the COA at 781-259-8811 to sign up or be put on the waiting list.

[Read more…] about Council on Aging activities in July

Outdoor music all over Lincoln this summer

Several organizations in Lincoln are offering music outdoors this summer.

Parks and Recreation

The Park and Rec summer concert series kicks off with Dadda on Wednesday, June 26. Each concert features a cookout to benefit Cops For Kids with Cancer. Concerts begin at 6 p.m. at the Codman Pool. Pool use for nonmembers during the show is $5 per person. Concerts will be cancelled or rescheduled for rain; check www.LincolnRec.com for updates.

Drumlin Farm

Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary’s Friday evening music series invites people of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate local music, local food, and community-based environmental action starting on Friday, June 28. The eclectic mix of folk, bluegrass, Americana, and rock throughout the summer is sure to have something for everyone.

In addition to live music, the concert series will feature various lawn games and climate-related activities for kids and adults to learn how they can make a difference in their own communities. Concert goers are encouraged to bring blankets, chairs, and a picnic dinner to relax on the lawn and enjoy the music. Ice cream and nonalcoholic beverages will be available for sale.

All shows are from 6–9 p.m. (the lawn opens at 5:30). Tickets are $15 for adults age 13 and older and free for children 12 and under (maximum $45 per family). Click here to purchase tickets.

deCordova  Sculpture Park and Museum

Music in the Courtyard features music in the sculpture park’s Café Courtyard on Thursdays starting July 11 from 6:30–8 p.m. (doors at 6:00). Sip some wine, savor a brew, enjoy a snack, and enjoy performances by local musicians Tickets are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. In case of rain, performances will take place inside the café. Outdoor seating is limited to 50, so advance purchase is recommended.

News acorns

Great Walden BioBlitz at Minute Man NHP

Join the National Park Service, Walden Woods Project, and naturalist Peter Alden in a mega-bio-blitz on Saturday, July 6 from 2–4 p.m. at the Hartwell Tavern lot area, 106 North Great Rd., Lincoln. Observe and identify plants, birds, insects, amphibians, and other living organisms, and learn to use the iNaturalist app and contribute to our goal of recording 2,000 species in a day. Naturalist-led tours in the park depart at 2 p.m. from the Hartwell lot. For more information, visit www.waldenbioblitz.org.

Watch the GearTicks robot in action

The Lincoln GearTicks “Rover Ruckus” machine.

There’s now video available of the Lincoln GearTicks robot that recently competed at the FIRST World Championship in Detroit. Students from teams all over the world had to design robots that could deliver “minerals” (gold cubes and whiffle balls) from a “crater” into the “lander” (an elevated box with separate containers). Click here to watch on YouTube (the GearTicks segment begins at 1:23:00 and the GearTicks “Rover Ruckus” robot is labeled 6055), or click here to download a 30-second video. The original story has been updated to include these link.

Summer hours at the library

The Lincoln Public Library will be open on Saturdays during July from 10 a.m.—1 p.m. (weekday hours remain the same), and the library will be closed on Saturdays during August. Regular Saturday hours (10 a.m.—5 p.m.) will begin on September 7.

Mass Audubon photo contest under way

Picture This: Your Great Outdoors, the Lincoln-based Mass Audubon’s annual statewide photo contest, invites shutterbugs of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of experience to share the natural beauty of the Bay State through their photography. The competition, which continues through September 30, has two age divisions (18 and older, and under 18) and six subject areas: people in nature, birds, mammals, other animals, landscapes, and plants and fungi.

Contestants may submit up to 10 images apiece. Photographs must have been taken any time prior to or during the 2019 contest period, but must have been shot in Massachusetts or at Mass Audubon’s Wildwood Camp in Rindge, N.H. One Grand Prize winner will be awarded a $250 gift card and will be featured in Mass Audubon’s member newsletter, Explore. Eleven winners will receive $100 gift cards, and at least six honorable mentions will receive $50 gift cards. Additional honorable mentions may be awarded at the discretion of the judges. To enter and to review contest information, including rules and how to submit photos online, visit massaudubon.org/picturethis.

News acorns

Hospice volunteers come to Drumlin Farm

Care Dimensions volunteers at Drumlin Farm (click photo to enlarge).

More than a dozen Care Dimensions employees recently volunteered at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm in Lincoln to plant vegetables, herbs, and flowers that will the farm will go to CSAs, farmers’ markets, and cafeterias. The farm day was part of the company’s employee volunteer program in which selected employees volunteer with a community organization located within the company’s service area. Last year, the Care Dimensions company opened an 18-bed hospice house in Lincoln, and it also has offices in Waltham and Danvers.

Food donations needed in summertime

Summer is a particular time of need for donations to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. During the school year, students can get free or reduced-price lunch at school, but now that the academic year is over, more food is needed to compensate for the loss of these lunches. Please donate canned goods, cereals, spaghetti sauce, diapers, snack foods, etc.  The pantry is always looking for healthy treats, gluten-free, and reduced-salt items as well. Bring items to St. Joseph Church (side door, basket on the floor) or the Parish Center at St. Julia Church (374 Boston Post Rd., Weston).

Get free books at the library

Summer is actually spring-cleaning time at the Lincoln Public Library, where summer interns help process discarded books for the public to pick up for free. The library scans selected books to see if its used book re-seller will take them, then offer put them on the discarded books cart in the library’s lower stack level downstairs. Some of the books are in good condition; others have been well loved and will be replaced by newer copies. Note: The books aren’t meant to take the place of our Friends Book Sale Cart — those books are all in good condition, and sales support the library programs.

Residents can now apply for building permits online

The Lincoln Planning Department is updating its services to include online applications for building permits. Applicants may click here, create an account, and apply for a permit. Only building permit applications are available online, but electrical, plumbing and gas will be added in the future. Anyone with questions regarding the system may call Lincoln IT Director Michael Dolan at 781-259-2702.  

Two new outdoor installations at deCordova

“Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow” by Wardell Milan.

Two new sculptures were recently unveiled at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum and will be on view until the end of December. In “PLATFORM 24: Wardell Milan, Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow,” New York artist Wardell Milan adapts one of his lush, intricate photo-dioramas to a monumental scale. Working with photography, sculpture, drawing, and collage, he stages intricate maquettes of found imagery to create compositions of pastoral landscapes populated by bodies of diverse genders and racial identity. The PLATFORM series at the deCordova includes one-person commissioned projects by early- and mid-career artists that engage with deCordova’s unique landscape.

“Kitchen Trees” by B. Wurtz.

“Kitchen Trees” is the first large-scale, public work by B. Wurtz. Its trunk is composed of blue colanders stacked in a slender column with thin metallic branches leading to overturned pots and pans, out of which plastic fruits and vegetables appear to fall. The sculpture’s form is partially inspired by the bulbous bronze fountain in New York’s City Hall Park where “Kitchen Trees” was first displayed alongside four other sculptures from the same series. At deCordova, the whimsical piece evokes a tropical palm tree, in striking contrast to the towering pines and elegant beeches that thrive in New England.