About the DeCordova Sculpture Park

The DeCordova Sculpture Park encompasses 35 acres of beautiful rolling woodlands and lawns, and is the largest park of its kind in New England (see Park Map). The Sculpture Park provides a constantly changing exhibition of large-scale, outdoor, Modern and contemporary American sculpture and site-specific installations for 125,000 visitors each year. The Sculpture Park is open to the public every day of the year from dawn 'til dusk, and contains approximately 75 artworks at any given time. (see Park Artists).

The original twenty-two acre Lincoln estate of Julian and Elizabeth Dana de Cordova was heavily wooded. A long, winding drive led from Sandy Pond Road past a large Carriage House and barn to a brick mansion built in the early 1900s on the highest point of the property overlooking Flint's Pond. The DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park was established in 1948 as a result of the bequest of Julian de Cordova (d. 1945), and first opened to the public in 1950.

Today, the Carriage House has become art studios, classrooms, and administrative offices for the DeCordova Museum School, and the "castle" (as the mansion was called) has been transformed into galleries for a museum of modern and contemporary American art. Over the years since the Museum's founding, parts of the property were cleared, additional acreage acquired, and occasional sculptures were placed outdoorsÑusually to complement exhibitions on view in the galleries. During the 1960s, DeCordova organized several important outdoor sculpture exhibitions that were designed to introduce audiences to vital new directions in large-scale Modernist sculpture then evolving. A 1966 exhibition, for example, included significant works by Alexander Calder, George Rickey, Max Bill, and Alexander Liberman.

In 1985, a curatorial program was established to provide for the permanent, rotating exhibition of contemporary American outdoor sculpture and site-specific installations. The early success and significance of this ongoing program was formally recognized in 1989 when the Museum's public name was changed to The DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.

The DeCordova Sculpture Park now occupies over 35 acres, and operates with a three-tier exhibition program:

• The first tier consists of outdoor sculpture from the DeCordova Permanent Collection. These works are few in number, and tend to include 20th century sculpture by historically significant artists such as George Rickey, Alexander Liberman, and Nam June Paik.
• The second tier, which makes up the bulk of work in the Sculpture Park, is comprised of large-scale outdoor sculptures borrowed by DeCordova from artists, dealers, museums, and private collectors. Several sculptures rotate in and out of the Sculpture Park each year. Artists currently participating in this loan program include Ursula von Rydingsvard, William Tucker, Mark diSuvero, Sol LeWitt, Chakaia Booker, and Jim Dine.
• The third tier is made up of site-specific, temporary, long-term (approximately 1 - 5 years) outdoor sculptures and installations designed by artists expressly for specific sites in the Sculpture Park. These include works by Steven Siegel, Ronald Gonzalez, Kitty Wales, Carlos Dorrien, and Rick Brown.

The Sculpture Park is also a major recreational resource for the town of Lincoln and surrounding Boston metropolitan area communities. Visitors can enjoy trail hiking, sunbathing, jogging, bicycling, picnics, dog walking, cross-country skiing, birding, and walking among many species of rare and non-native trees exotic to the New England region. Museum guides give regularly scheduled toursfor all Sculpture Park visitors, and can provide special tours for organizations, school groups, and the visually impaired upon request. To schedule special tours, call the DeCordova Museum Education Coordinator at 781/259-3603.

These pages of our web site contain a wide range of basic information about the DeCordova Sculpture Park. A mapof our Sculpture Park and a listing of all of the exhibiting artists are only a click away. A page for each artist features an image of each sculpture currently sited at DeCordova, as well as basic information and a short educational essay that provides additional context for the artwork. On our Further Informationpage, you will find information on submitting artwork. You may also enjoy visiting the International Sculpture Center's comprehensive guide to sculpture parks around the world.