Beacon Hill Art Walk 2012

[Landscape in a garden, Beacon Hill, Boston; 6/3/12]

The Beacon Hill Art Walk is held every year, rain or shine, the first Sunday in June. This year was the 22nd annual event, and I remember going to it once in the early '90s when the art was often displayed inside some of the local artist's homes, similar to open studio events nowadays. All art at the Art Walk is now outdoors in the private gardens, courtyards and alleys of the neighborhood as well as a couple of open spaces. About 100 artists from around New England participate, and no crafts such as jewelry or even artist's notecards are allowed. It's all about the art.

[Paintings by Minatsu Ariga]

Well, it's mostly about the art. It's also about being able to venture into the normally hidden nooks and crannies of Beacon Hill's North Slope, or "back of the Hill," once a much seedier area, but now quite pricey. There's also chamber music in a few spaces large enough to accommodate it. A few years back we heard some wonderful klezmer music on the steps of the beautiful old Vilna Shul, with its stained glass windows and its century-old painted murals being excavated in the sanctuary.

[Musicians at the Beacon Hill Art Walk]

I went to the Walk in 2008 with friends, in 2009 with D when we were first dating, and we attempted to go in 2010 with friends visiting from California but for a tree-uprooting storm that blew through. Last year we seemed to have just forgotten about it, and that even before all of our health issues that sidelined us throughout the summer. This year wasn't the greatest weatherwise, with intermittent drizzle, but it was as always an enjoyable few hours of browsing and photographing.

Here are a few more photos in my Flickr set for the day.

Comments

[Lorianne]

Lovely! The Art Walk always seems to happen on a weekend when I have a bunch of other things to do, so I'm glad to experience this year's walk vicariously through your photos!

[marja-leena]

Such an interesting event, and I recall some of your past photos. The work must all be weather safe, that is, nothing on paper unless in a waterproof frame or some such setting :-) Do you ever buy any of the art?

[Leslee]

Lorianne: Yes, I did wonder if we might run into you there. It was somewhat iffy whether we'd make it until the weather cleared enough. Maybe next year!

Marja-Leena: They have a "sunny day map" and a "rainy day map" so I presume if it had rained they had more tents or indoor places to stage things. But it was a bit drizzly early on, so I guess the artists knew what they could bring out - and there were lots of works on paper. Some prints were wrapped in cellophane. And some folks were under canopies. As for buying art, I do wish I could! I'm lucky to have money to pay the rent (sigh).

[Relatively Retiring]

What a lovely event, and how wise to have sunny and wet options. You may have noticed that over here we just keep going, lashing rain or broiling heat being of no consequence to hardy Brits!

[Leslee]

RR: Well, they don't call where I live New England for nothing!