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

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Bearing witness

On a cold December 30 evening, about 30 people from Lincoln attended a vigil at the ICE facility in Burlington. It was organized by Lincoln Witness, which noted that the purpose of the vigil was to symbolically “shine a light on the injustices being done at this facility.”

Have some holiday laughs with WordsMove Theater

Lincoln’s WordsMove Theater presents “Holiday Stories You Haven’t Heard,” a series of short, mostly humorous staged readings on Christmas and Hanukkah themes, on two dates in Lincoln:

  • Friday, Dec. 5 at 12:30pm, Bemis Hall
  • Thursday, Dec. 11 at 6:30pm, Lincoln Public Library Tarbell Room

See www.wordsmove.org for play and cast details as well as additional performances in surrounding towns.

Touch of Christmas Fair

The First Parish in Lincoln will host its annual Touch of Christmas Fair on Saturday, Dec. 6 from 10:00am–1:00pm in the stone church. Browse decorated wreaths, centerpieces, and other Christmas decorations as well as jewelry from every decade, antiques and collectibles, handmade sweater mittens, stocking stuffers et al at the “re-gifting” table, and a children-only shopping room with free gift wrapping. Santa arrives at 1:00am on a fire truck for photos, and homemade “psalm soup” will be served starting at 11:30.

Musical events at L-S

Cabaret in the Café
Friday, Dec. 5 at 7:30pm, L-S Regional High School Café
Enjoy this annual Cabaret Concert in an intimate musical setting featuring a cappella groups, vocal soloists, symphonic and concert jazz ensemble, and jazz combos. Admission is $5. L-S Friends of Music will have snacks and beverages available for sale.

Pops Concert
Thursday, Dec. 11 at 7:30pm, L-S Regional High School Kirshner Auditorium
The L-S Music Department presents their annual Pops Concert featuring the concert and symphonic bands, orchestra, concert choir, and chamber singers. This family-friendly concert is free and open to the public. Concessions will be sold during intermission. The concert will air in both Sudbury and Lincoln on Comcast channel 9/Verizon channel 32 and will livestream here.

Wreath-making at deCordova

Come to a workshop to make a holiday wreath from array of lush evergreen boughs on Saturday, Dec. 6 from 2:30-4:00pm inside the deCordova Museum. All materials provided. Click here to purchase tickets.

Read “Common Sense” with Minute Men

Join the Lincoln Minutemen for their next book club event, a discussion of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 2:30pm in the Lincoln Public Library’s Tarbell Room. This short pamphlet (c. 50 pages) was first published anonymously in January 1776 and quickly became one of the most widely read and influential texts in the colonies, making the case for independence. It is widely available in libraries, bookstores, and Amazon.com, and you can also listen to it on Hoopla or Audible. 

Coming up from the library

Ompractice: Peace in the Pause with Reggie Hubbard
Sunday, Dec. 7, 7:00-8:30pm (Zoom)
This beginner-friendly class offers space to slow down, breathe deeply, and find balance during one of the busiest and most stressful times of the year. To register, sign up for an Ompractice membership here using your library card. Ompractice provides Lincoln Library patrons access to hundreds of live and on-demand wellness classes.

Craft Supply Swap: Gift Wrapping Edition
Saturday, Dec. 13, 12:30-3:30pm, Reference Room
Do you have gift wrap supplies that you’ve loved for years but are hoping to swap them out for something new? Bring them to the library to swap for new-to-you supplies! Donations are not required to participate. Anything donated should be enough to cover a shoe box, we will not be accepting paper scraps. No registration required.

Chris O’Connor and Mike Bradley of Fortune’s Favor.

Fortune’s Favor at next LOMA

Fortune’s Favor, an acoustic folk duo from New Hampshire (singer/songwriter/guitarists Chris O’Connor and Mike Bradley), will be the headliner at the next Lincoln Open Mic Acoustic (LOMA) on Monday, Dec. 9 from 7–10 p.m. in Bemis Hall. LOMA is a monthly open mike night event with mikes and instrumental pickups suitable for individuals or small groups playing acoustic-style. Come and perform (email loma3re@gmail.com to sign up) or just come listen to acoustic music and spoken word. Free admission.

Donate gift cards for needy seniors

Each year, the Council on Aging & Human Services visits needy seniors to spread some holiday cheer and offer $10 gift cards to stores such as Market Basket, Walgreens, and CVS. Stop by the “giving tree” in the Bemis Hall lobby to take a specific gift card request to fulfill, or bring a grocery/pharmacy gift card of your choosing. Please have gift card donations in by Friday, Dec. 12.

Boy Scouts selling Christmas trees

Lincoln’s Boy Scouts are selling Christmas trees of various sizes as well as wreaths on Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00am–6:00pm across from the police station while supplies last. Be aware that the tree lot may close during heavy rain, and that sales are cash only.

Contest invites ideas to replace porta-potty at Gropius House

The portable toilet next to the original Gropius House garage, which has been repurposed as a visitor center. (Photo courtesy Kubany LLC)

Historic New England has launched an international design competition to “reimagine the arrival experience” at Lincoln’s Gropius House. Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus Dessau, the competition invites proposals for a permanent public restroom and redesigned visitor center.

Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus and one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, designed the house as his family residence while teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Completed in 1938, he intended the house to serve as both a private residence and a teaching tool, illustrating Bauhaus principles of functional design and the integration of architecture with the surrounding landscape. In 1979, Gropius’s widow Ise donated the home, complete with original furnishings, artwork, and personal belongings, to Historic New England. Gropius House opened to the public in 1984 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000. In the years since, it has become one of the most visited sites under Historic New England’s stewardship.

One problem for the thousands of people that visit each year, though — calls of nature require a visit to a portable toilet next to the house’s original garage, which is now used as a visitor center. The competition participants are invited to propose “creative, contextually sensitive solutions that integrate seamlessly with the site and architecture, while enhancing visitors’ sense of arrival and connection to the landscape.”

In keeping with Gropius’s design philosophy, entrants are encouraged to “experiment with new materials, technologies, and ideas that challenge conventional design thinking.” The competition encourages interdisciplinary teams that may include architects, landscape architects, graphic designers, industrial designers, and other professionals.

There are two parallel competitions, one for practicing design professionals and another for architecture and design students. Submissions will be reviewed by a jury of academic architects, curators, and architecture critics. Winners will receive a cash prize, as well as inclusion in the Gropius House archives and an exhibition at the property. The submission deadline is Feb. 6, 2026, with winners announced on March 27. For submission requirements and additional details, visit gropiuscompetition.info.

This is an edited version of a press release from Kubany LLC and Historic New England.

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.)

Kathy Ruttenberg, “A Snail’s Pace,” 2018. Cast silicon bronze, polychrome patina, cast acrylic, and LED lighting. Courtesy of the artist and Lyles & King, New York. Photo by Mel Taing.

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.

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. 

My Turn: Welcome back, Lincoln Review!

By May Ann Hales

Editor’s note: You can see the last two issues of the new Lincoln Review here. Learn how to submit your work for the next issue here (the deadline is April 4).

One morning I read in the Lincoln Squirrel that the creative arts section called the Lincoln Chipmunk would be renamed the Lincoln Review, in honor of the print predecessor by the same name. The Review was part of our little town from 1977 to 2019. For all those years, various people contributed written pieces, art, and illustrations on a myriad of things from and about Lincoln.

I had participated in a small way and was so sad when it ceased publication. Our town had lost something small but wonderful. Now my heart rejoiced to know that it would be rejuvenated. I was also surprised to discover that back issues from 1977–1980 can now be browsed and searched online here thanks to our library staff, and every single print issue (plus an index) can be perused at the Lincoln Public Library. Not only is modern technology grand, but so are the efforts of numerous people who made this possible for us.

The Review was an important outlet for Lincolnites who wanted to express their creative or civic thoughts in print. You could purchase a copy at the grocery store or subscribe and receive your issues in the mail. Town Meeting editions were distributed free to all attendees. It was an important part of our creative lives.

It was surprising how ideas germinated and took root from the pages of the Review. For example, in 1982, Suze Craig wrote a piece titled “The Garden as Day Care” about how children and adults explored her garden. That article became the inspiration for the name of our still-flourishing Magic Garden. Imagine that.

I look forward to new inspiration from the online pages of the creative section of the Squirrel now appearing as the Lincoln Review. The late Betty and Harold Smith, the major publishers of the old Review, will be looking from the Great Beyond with the pleasure of succession. I am excited to see what blooms anew in our cultural life through the pages of the Lincoln Review redux.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Doo-Wop Team hits it out of the park

The Doo-Wop Team from the Lincoln Council on Aging & Human Services sang on the field at Polar Park in Worcester before the WooSox minor-league game on August 16. Group member Peter Stewart plays the organ at Polar Park twice a month and encouraged the group to come and sing. Members also took a moment to sing “Happy Birthday” to member Harold McAleer, who turned 94 the next day. The Doo-Wop team has performed several gigs and donated the proceeds to the Lincoln food pantry over the past year. Left to right: Priscilla Leach, R.L. Smith, McAleer, Mark Faulkner, Stewart, Candace Foster, and Jessica Bethoney. Not visible in photo: Carol DiGianni and Lynne LaSpina.

Welcome to the Lincoln Review (version 2)!

As subscribers probably know, the Lincoln Squirrel has published the Lincoln Chipmunk, an online arts periodical, for the last several years as a successor to the print-only Lincoln Review (1977–2019). This summer, I’m welcoming Barbara Rhines as the new editor of the publication, which is relaunching with a new design but the old name. It will still be published for subscribers on the Lincoln Squirrel website. Here’s the newest issue:

lincolnsquirrel.com/the-lincoln-review

An important new section for crafts is now part of the Lincoln Review. In future issues, we would also like to include a section showcasing the creative endeavors of Lincoln high-school students. And to further honor the storied history of this town and prior contributors, we hope to feature vintage submissions selected from the past issues of the Lincoln Review/Lincoln Chipmunk. 

Check out the Lincoln Review’s submission guidelines. Be creative and send in your work! The next deadline is October 11, 2024. Please tell your friends about this vital new journal of literature, art, and craft. (And by the way, you can still see back issues of the Lincoln Chipmunk here.)

Alice Waugh
Editor, The Lincoln Squirrel
Publisher, The Lincoln Review
lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com
617-710-5542 (mobile)

My Turn: Check out famed cellist Helen Gillet on Friday

By Mimi Borden, Sara Mattes, and Rachel Marie Schachter

This Friday night, we have a unique opportunity to hear a gifted, boundary-breaking artist — cellist Helen Gillet — in a rare New England performance. She will take the stage at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 28 at Bemis Hall.

Helen has played notable venues around the world including Lincoln Center, NPR’s Tiny Desk, and TEDx stages. She performs most often in New Orleans, her current home, where her packed performances at the New Orleans Jazz Fest are consistently met with standing ovations.

Helen has a unique approach to music. She sings in English, French, and other languages while accompanying herself with multi-layered sounds that she records and loops as she performs. Her eclectic palette, technical prowess, extended techniques, and artistic daring combine to create an other-worldly experience. It’s one not to be missed. This is a sample of what you’ll hear.

Please join the Bemis Free Lecture Series to experience a most enchanting evening.

The authors are Bemis Trustees.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

News acorns

Cello concert on Friday

Helen Gillet

See Helen Gillet, a “whirling dervish of the cello,” in concert on Friday, June 28 at 8 p.m. in Bemis Hall. Gillet is a cellist, singer, composer, and master improviser who grew up in Belgium, Singapore, Illinois and Wisconsin. Calling New Orleans home since 2002, she is a jazz festival favorite who regularly performs on stages all over the world. Her solo shows are an eclectic mix of styles including French chansons, Belgian folk sung in Walloon, contemporary jazz, North Indian blues and classical. She combines acoustic cello with voice, percussion and live looping and layering technology to explore and push the boundaries of sound and rhythm. See videos of her performing here. Free; sponsored by the Bemis Free Lecture Series.

Coming up at the library

Kids’ Comic Workshop with LJ Baptiste
Monday, July 8 from 7–8 p.m., Tarbell Room
ids ages 7+ are invited to join Boston cartoonist and comic artist LJ-Baptiste for a three-week workshop on Monday nights in July to learn how comics are made. You will also create your own comics and original characters using techniques from pros in comics and manga as well. All supplies will be provided by the library. Registration required; participants are encouraged to register for all three workshop sessions. Register here.

Ricardo Frota

Ecology of Sound: Ricardo Frota
Wednesday, July 10 from 11 a.m.–noon, Tarbell Room
Join us for a performance by Ricardo Frota that inspires children and parents to absorb the rhythms, sound and music from different global cultures and the natural world that surrounds them. Ricardo entertains and educates while playing multicultural songs and improvising with Earth elements. His interactive performances use traditional rhythm instruments, and instruments made of recycled materials and also objects found in nature. All ages welcome; no registration required.

Dungeons and Dragons: A Library Campaign
Thursday, July 11 from 4–5 p.m., Tarbell Room
Come play Dungeons and Dragons in the library with DM Nikolas Metcalf. Registration required; for ages 11+. Register here.

Donate art supplies to Lincoln hospice house

Lincoln resident Stacey Sawyer-Mackie, who volunteers with the Care Dimensions hospice house in Lincoln, is collecting adult coloring books, colored pencils, thin-tipped markers and similar items to have available for family members and visitors at the hospice house. If you can donate such items or easy word search, simple crossword puzzle books or other similar items, email her at slsweet830@aol.com.

Art sales pull in funds for Boston Bridges Initiative

The Schrader-Johnson family of Lincoln with their new painting. 

The Schrader-Johnson family of Lincoln are the proud new owners of an original painting titled “Changes” by James Leonard. They purchased the painting at a recent event hosted by Boston Bridges Initiative (BBI), a nonprofit that facilitates cultural exchange and meaningful social interaction between city and suburban families in the greater Boston area.

The art sale was a fundraiser through BBI’s Downsize for Diversity program, which accepts donations of artwork and sells it at greatly reduced prices — and whose earlier iteration resulted in this 2022 book. The sale focused on art donated by the global consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Framed paintings and photographs from this collection are still available along with hundreds of additional pieces of art at a home gallery in Lincoln. If you’re interested in purchasing art at discount prices for a good cause, contact Joanna Schmergel at owenjoanna@yahoo.com or 617-645-9059.