Above: Neary students helped their Art Teacher celebrate the installation of the 4th & 5th grade art project at Art on the Trails. (contributed photos)
On Saturday, thirteen art exhibits were installed for the public to enjoy Art on the Trails this summer.
One of the exhibits was the 7th annual 4th & 5th grade art student project organized by Neary School’s Art Teacher.
As I previously shared, the summer long exhibit is the 9th annual at Beals Preserve. The theme this year capitalized on that, focusing on the number 9.
For Neary’s exhibit (#2 on the map), the school shared the following details and photos:
This is the seventh time that Art teacher Denise Johnson has submitted an application on behalf of her students and the seventh time that their work has donned the beautiful Beals Preserve trails. Neary School brings to the exhibit the only installation created by children and once again it will hang alongside installations created by professional sculptors and artists.
Johnson landed on “9th Letter of the Alphabet Portraits” as a play on words. The letter i is the 9th letter of the alphabet so students painted portraits that focused on their eyes. They could paint the back of the blocks any way they wished, inspired by the number 9. Some children chose to paint nine of one thing they really enjoy, such as nine soccer balls or musical notes. Others were inspired by nature–a flower with 9 petals, or a sunset with nine bands of beautiful warm hues. You may find a couple complicated math equations with 9 as the answer. There are nine innings in baseball, a cat has nine lives, one can be on cloud nine. The ideas and creativity of nine to twelve year olds is pretty wonderful!
The blocks of balsa wood were donated from a fellow teacher’s aunt who works at Guillow’s in Wakefield, Massachusetts–the factory that has been making balsa wood gliders for nearly 100 years. Neary parent volunteers primed each piece of wood then drilled a hole down the center. Deep sea fishing line was used to string the blocks and, when hanging them for display, each strand was anchored to a stone or a branch to prevent the lines from tangling. When considering art for this outdoor exhibit one has to consider that it must hold up to Mother Nature for three months.
Installation art is unique in that oftentimes it is temporary. The installations for Southborough’s Art on the Trails remain up from June through September. The closing ceremony this year is scheduled for September 14th, 2025.
On Monday, June 16, the 4th and 5th grade children at Neary School [enjoyed] a school-wide walking field trip providing the opportunity for each child to see their painted block of wood hanging with the other 275 students’ paintings. Collaborative art is impactful. Each block painted on one side with a student’s portrait of their eyes, and the back painted anyway they chose, inspired by the number 9 is wonderful on its own. As Neary always encourages and fosters a sense of belonging, this art installation speaks to that in volumes. A picture (or in this case an art installation) is worth a thousand words! Johnson feels that it is meaningful for the students to see their art on display–this year hanging from a beautiful elm tree along a stonewall separating two open meadows–a gorgeous and unique art gallery!
Click on thumbnails of contributed photos below to enlarge and read details:
Read more about the other installations and the Call for Poetry here. And for a gallery of all of the artworks, click here.
