November Stebbins Exhibit

Highlights Alewife Area Preservation

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

Conservation and preservation efforts in the Alewife area are currently on display at the Stebbins Gallery at the First Parish Unitarian Church in Cambridge in “Alewife Reservation Urban Wild Art Show,” which continues at the Zero Church St. venue through Nov. 24.

The drawings and paintings in the pictorial retrospective of one of the crown jewels of Cambridge’s natural landscape are the work of Greater Boston as well as Alewife area Stebbins members and outside artists, who range from well-known to the beginner level.

The non-profit Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR) organization introduced the artists, as well as First Parish members, to the Reservation, through their ongoing, year-round tours, special environmental widlife walks, bird walks, cleanups and/or writings on the varied Alewife ecosystems. The four-year-old group has a Board of Directors and Advisory Board, each of which meet every other month to plan events and exchange current information on the Little River-Alewife Brook subwatershed of Cambridge, Belmont and Arlington.

“We try to steward, stay close with MDC staff and their new masterplanning, and educate the public,” said FAR Founder and President Ellen Mass, “about the city storm-water-sewer separation improvement plan which is supposed to clean our part of the Mystic River watershed, about two miles of shoreline, by 95 percent.”

Other efforts may however, endanger the Reservation’s rare silver maple forest, home to thousands of migrating and nesting mammals and birds. “We are trying to save the rare forest from being cut down,” she said, “not to mention the enormous climate value to our towns and cities of having 15 acres of 40-100 year old growth trees. She noted that the loss would be a climactic loss to the area.

Oils of an one representative hundred-year-old tree, painted by Stebbins Gallery members Marilyn Briggs and Peggy Fox, are in the show.

Two Roger T. Peterson original watercolor paintings of New England birds of New England are included as well, adding a dimension of artistic precision within a distinctive ornithological study.

The show’s offerings are dispersed throughout the gallery and hallway with plans, maps, envisioning drawings, history and the work of Friends of Alewife Reservation. At a time of widespread urban and state development and restoration, the group’s work stresses the need to focus upon precious resources, which are also depicted in ceramic items and sculpture.

Sylvia Gilman’s original illustrations from the group’s 1992 Alewife Ecology Guide of Stewart Sanders, which is used for field trips, will be featured, along with Peter Difazio’s paintings of a duck and goose, Sheila Rice and Connie Kirwan’s monotypes and prints, and Mass’ watercolors of forests. “They reflect its mystery and the canopied effect of high branched maples and years of forest debris and alluvial soil throughout the 15 acres,” she explained.

“Stebbins designers Connie, in her monoprints, and Ernie Kirwan, in his photographs,” Mass continued, “juxtapose the nature preserve history and design plans in their art works, with a naturalist's sensitivity and skill, projecting bountiful Cambridge, Arlington, Somerville and Belmont nature that has long been neglected and abandoned over the years.”

The ecosystem drawings and dried wildflower and tree leaf collections of seventh and eighth grade students from the Graham and Parks School as well as the work of six photographers, add to the diversity of media. “Although the forest is not of first growth trees, the photos imply a primal one in any heavy older forest with magnificance,” added Mass, whose own photos depict the Reservation in all four seasons.

The photos of David Fichter, who crafted a mural project at the Alewife T stop, pictures of a homestead area and biography of Ralph Chang, botanist photographer Brian Hamlin, and the works of ceramic artist Tina Grams and artist Kat Mitchell round out the thoughtful and provocatively-themed collection.

“The show represents the powerful impact,” said Mass, “that stewarding an area and demonstrating conservation values in a congested city has, on children, families, passive recreationists, open space planners and serious environmentalists, as well as local residents who enjoy passive recreation and learning about the natural world.”

“Alewife Reservation Urban Wild Art Show” runs Nov. 2-24 at the Stebbins Gallery. Weekend hours are as follows: Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. noon-4 p.m. For information, Contact cekirwan@aol.com, call 617-491-0166 or 617-876-7772. For information on the Friends of Alewife Reservation, visit www.friendsofalewifereservation.org.