About Art on the Trails

Art on the Trails is a annual juried outdoor art exhibition and poetry program founded and directed by Catherine Weber, and hosted by the Southborough Open Land Foundation in Elaine and Philip Beals Preserve in Southborough, Massachusetts.

While an informal exhibition was mounted in 2012, the inaugural juried program, Finding Solace in the Woods, was mounted during the summer of 2017. The exhibition was juried by Southborough resident Mary M. Tinti, Former Curator of the Fitchburg Art Museum and featured art by 15 regional artists.  

Jurors and themes for subsequent years were as follows:

2018: Unexpected Gestures, Jean Mineo
2019: Marking Territory, Shana Dumont Garr
2020: Rising Up, Hilary Zelson
2021: Mending, Sarah Montross
2022: EXPOSURE, Anne Alexander
2023: Transformation, Sarah Alexander

Plein Air Poetry
 A juried poetry program, juried by Maura Snell, poetry editor and founder of The Tishman Review, and Hopkinton Poet Cynthia Franca, attracted over 25 poets in 2017, who wrote poetry in response to the art installations. A catalog/poetry chapbook was published by The Tishman Review. Each year, a new book is published.

2018, final prize awarded by poet Didi Jackson
2019, Zachary Bos
2020, Tianli Kilpatrick
2021, Tianli Kilpatrick
2022, Wendy Drexler
2023, Joanne deSimone Reynolds

Two films were made about the project in 2017

Watch this video, recorded by Southborough Access Media, featuring poetry readings from the closing event.

A 30-minute film about the program, produced by Catherine Weber in collaboration with filmmaker Radek Jaster is seen below: