2026
The Annual Bridges and Connections Sculpture Symposium
brings global artists together to collaborate, learn and create.
Each Symposium adds new works to the hill.
2026
Symposium
Theme:
Curiosity
Through the energy of our curiosity, we make the decision to pursue the result of our actions.
Select each artist’s image to click through samples of their work. (under construction)
Scroll further to view the artists from ’25, ’24 & ’23 and symposium history.
Fermin Castro
Cuba & Massachusetts
Waldo Jespersen
Massachusetts
Marin Murakoshi
Japan & Massachusetts
Our symposium artists and the volunteers lending helping hands would love for you to bring lunch to the Studio. Bring along enough for yourself as well. Pull up a chair, share the meal you brought with the artists and spend the lunch hour getting to know them. Dinners are served in the Welcome Center but operate the same way.
You can bring home cooking, take out (anything from gourmet to pizza) or provide a donation for AIA volunteers to order a meal. Any way you choose, plan to enjoy the meal with the artists. Are you not able to stay for the meal? You can still donate and we will be sure they are fed!
Use the QR code or go to https://signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/981038018087/. Signup will not require you to make an account.
Symposium Calendar
Please come back as the Symposium approaches and events are added.
Sept 12 1:00pm |
Opening Ceremony
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Welcome Center – Meet the Symposium artists as they share their portfolios & processes Public invited – Free Event
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Sept 12 6:15pm / 7:00pm |
Reception followed by Modern Fools with Brother Seamus & the Dudes Concert
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Welcome Center, “Big Bear Lodge” Reception Free – Meet the Artists Fundraising Concert Tickets ($25): Modern Fools with Brother Seamus & the Dudes
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Sept 18 7:00pm |
Soggy Po’ Boys Concert |
Welcome Center, “Big Bear Lodge” Fundraising Concert Tickets ($25): Soggy Po’ Boys
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Oct 2 7:00pm |
Diplomats of Funk Concert |
Welcome Center, “Big Bear Lodge” Fundraising Concert Tickets ($25): |
October 4 1:00pm |
Closing Ceremony |
Meet at the Info Kiosk at the base of the trails. (Subject to change based on the location of the new sculptures) Reception to follow with the artists in the Welcome Center. Public Invited – free events. |
2025
Symposium
Theme:
Decisive Piece
Select each artist’s image to see their Symposium
sculpture then click through samples of their work.
Scroll further to view the artists from ’24 & ’23 and symposium history.
Parastoo Ahovan
Iran; Connecticut
Robert Leverich
Olympia, Washington
Jorg Van Daele
Kalmthout, Belgium
2024
Symposium
Select each artist’s image to view their AIA
sculpture then click through
samples of their work.
Scroll further to view the
artists from 2023 and symposium history.
Morton Burke
Alberta, Canada
Jim Larson
Portland, Maine
Adrian Wall
Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico
2023
Symposium
Theme:
TIME
Select each artist’s image to click through
samples of their work.
Scroll further to view the
artists from 2022 and symposium history.
Ivona Biocic Mandic
Croatia
Finn Cossar
Australia
Ted Castro
Massachusetts
2023
Symposium Sculptures
Each of the 2022 Symposium artists was interviewed at the end of the process.
View each interview using the buttons.
Symposium t-shirts and a new AIA shirt are now available with proceeds supporting the AIA.
The shirts were selected with fair-trade and eco-friendly production in mind, reflecting the AIA’s commitment to the environment.
The off-white shirt has the symposium logo on the front and is $20. The other shirts have the AIA logo on the left-chest and the main design on the back and are $30. The blue shirts feature men’s and women’s styles.
The shirts and AIA Stickers are now available in the online store! Click HERE or use the STORE tab in the menu above.
2022 Symposium Artists
Dankha Zomaya
was born in Syria where he earned a degree in fine arts from the University of Damascus. Before moving to Chicago, Zomaya taught at different schools and colleges for over twenty years.
He has displayed his work in over twenty-two solo exhibitions and many other joint exhibitions in Canada, United States, Bulgaria, Sweden, and the Middle East. His work is obtained by private collectors, the National Museum of Damascus (The Modern Art Gallery of Damascus), the Syrian Department of Culture, and many galleries in different countries. Zomaya’s research in art was followed by many plastic art students and researchers inside and outside of Syria.
Dankha Zomay stone faces
Dankha Zomaya bronze figure
Dankha Zomaya stone
Dankha Zomaya wood
Lee Wright
is a fearless printmaker and painter based in the Brecon Beacons in South Wales.
After a long career in IT in London he made a change to study printmaking at Putney School of Art,
His Lino prints are aimed in capturing the beauty and tranquility of the landscape too. He works out of a studio in Cwmdu in a converted Victorian school alongside other gifted artists.
“Every moment of every day the light and the effect it has on the scenery changes. I try to capture some of these moments in my Lino prints.”
He moved to South Wales in 2009 where he was inspired by his new surroundings to paint the landscape.
He trained in oil painting at The Welsh Academy of Art. In his artwork, Lee paints using techniques handed down from the masters such as Rembrandt, whilst his Lino prints have an essence of the delicate and beautiful Japanese woodblock prints of the past with a nod of the ever-popular Vintage Railway Prints.
He works and teaches in his studios near Crickhowell in a converted Victorian School. View more of his work.
Sugarloaf from the Ffawyddog Linotype Lee Wright
Pink Roses Lee Wright
Lee Wright at work
Sam Finkelstein
Sam Finkelstein
Installation in Nashua
finkelstein_citywalk_1
The Symposium
The Andres Institute of Art was founded in 1998 by sculptor John Weidman and philanthropist Paul Andres. The first symposium was held in 1999. Seven artists were invited to come to Brookline for two weeks to create sculptures which would be placed on permanent display on the mountain. Sculptors from Lithuania, Latvia, England, Czech Republic, Ukraine, New Hampshire and Vermont attended this first symposium and stayed with local volunteer families.
As the sculptures were completed, volunteers moved them from the studio to the sites using heavy equipment. When the sculptors headed home, seven new sculptures had been placed on the mountain. One of them, Phoenix, is to this day the largest work in the sculpture park; it is 15 feet tall and weighs about 11 tons.
The symposium format proved a great success. Since that time, the Institute has held the event annually, welcoming three to five artists to work their craft within a new theme selected for each symposium. The sculptors continue to stay with local hosts and share meals provided by volunteers. They receive a small stipend for participation but the real rewards are to create as they choose, to learn from other sculptors and to choose the location for their work to be enjoyed. As a result of the collective effort from these gifted artists, we now have over 100 thought-provoking original works of art nestled along walking trails on the mountain in our 140 acre sculpture park.
After a two-year hiatus the Symposium will return in 2022 with the theme of: “Catch ’22”. We invite you to attend over the symposium period to meet the artists and watch them at work to follow the evolution of raw material to sculptural works.
Symposium 2022
The
Symposium
Gallery
Sculpture Park Entrance &
Welcome Center
106 Route 13, Brookline, NH 03033
Call or Mail
(603) 732-0216
Andres Institute of Art, PO Box 226, Brookline, NH 03033-0226