Symposium 2022

Members' Opening Event Saturday, September 10 1pm-5pm

Meet the 2022 Symposium artists and hear from special speakers including John Weidman, AIA Master Sculptor; Mark Favermann of Favermann Design Boston and AIA Board Member speaking on The Contemporary Nature of Public Art; and poet Joyce Hinckley reading from her Stone & Fireworks collection. Event is free for members and recently-lapsed members. Please RSVP for planning purposes. If you would like to bring a dish to share please include it in your RSVP.

Public Symposium Opening Event - Free - Sunday, Sept 11 at 1:00pm

Public introduction of the artists and explanation of the Symposium process. Meet at the Studio on the hill.

Public Symposium Closing Event - Free - Sunday, October 2nd at 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Be there to witness the unveiling of the newest works installed in their locations on the AIA trails. Meet at the studio before visiting each new site with the group. There will be shuttle service between the Welcome Center and the Studio for those who need it. Once at the Studio there will walking required to view the three new sculptures.

All Public events are free of charge. The Park trails will remain open during the Symposium. Public viewing of the sculptors at work will be available. At times the Studio and adjacent areas will be closed off for public safety due to the nature of working with stone and metal. All other trails and 100+ sculptures will be available for hiking and viewing during regular hours.

Admission to the Park is always free, the park is open seven days per week, dawn to dusk. Donations may be made at the trailhead, the Studio or online. Memberships also available online.

Scroll down for pictures of the sculptures being made this year and previous symposia, artist bios, the history of the Symposium and more.

A limited supply of shirts will be available at the Symposium, 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 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.

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.

View more of his work here.

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

was born in New York City, and currently lives in Rockland, Maine. His work centers on the human body as the link between the psychic states of everaccelerating metropolitan centers and those of more time-expansive pastoral landscapes. This exploration manifests in sculpted stone, poetry, drawings, and music. Finkelstein is interested in his work primarily registering on a nonverbal level – something rooted in a primordial, energetic collective knowledge that we share with plants, trees, fellow animals, and the heavenly bodies of the cosmos. View more of his work at Sculpture Party