
2023
The Annual Bridges and Connections Sculpture Symposium
brings global artists together to collaborate, learn and create.
Each Symposium adds new works to the hill.
2023
Symposium
Theme:
TIME
Select each artist’s image to click through
samples of their work.
Scroll down for 2023 events, and to view the
artists from 2022 and symposium history.
Ivona Biocic Mandic
Croatia
Finn Cossar
Australia
Ted Castro
Massachusetts

2023
Symposium
Events
September 16, 1:00 pm Opening Ceremony ♦ Welcome Center ♦ Public Invited ♦ Free
Keynote Speaker Adele Bauman, Director, NH State Council on the Arts
September 23, 3:00 pm Symposium Artist Showcase ♦ Welcome Center ♦ Public Invited ♦ Free ♦
The three artists will provide presentations of their portfolios and careers
September 23, 5:00 pm Dinner with Symposium Artists ♦ Catered BBQ from The Alamo ♦ Tickets Here
Seating Begins at 4:30 pm upstairs in the Welcome Center, Tickets $29pp
September 29, 6:00 pm Dinner with Symposium Artists ♦ Lobster Dinner from Pasta Loft ♦ Tickets Here
Welcome Center Doors Open at 5:10 pm, Tickets $38pp
September 30, 4-7:00pm Cedi’s Tasty Treats Food Truck Available to the public and park visitors.
Enjoy your food upstairs in the Welcome Center to the sounds of kNowhere Kids. Bring an instrument & join the jam session!
October 7, 3:00 pm Panel Discussion: Art in the Public Sphere. Moderator Mark Favermann Panelists John Weidman, David Phillips, David Wackell
Welcome Center ♦ Public Invited ♦ Free
October 8, 1:00 pm Closing Ceremony ♦ Studio ♦ Public Invited ♦ Free
View the three new works in place along the trails
Shuttle available b/t parking & Studio
The 12 miles of trails of the AIA with over 100 sculptures are open daily, dawn to dusk, free to the public.
View the pieces underway at the Studio, best viewing is Mon-Fri between Sept 24 – Oct 4.
The Welcome Center is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 am – 4 pm throughout the Symposium with the Visitor Information Center, wifi and restrooms.

Moderator: Mark Favermann, sculptor, art critic, urban designer
Artist Panelists: David Phillips, sculptor and site-specific artist of large-scale pieces; Andrew Spahr, past head curator, Currier Museum of Art; Pamela Tarbell, curator, jurorist and painter; David Wackell, Anna Maria College, Dept. of Art & Design.
Get an inside perspective on developing, exhibiting and jurying public art. Each panelist will present samples of their work followed by questions from the Moderator and public Q&A. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

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.
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.
Sam Finkelstein
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 &
Visitor Center
106 Route 13, Brookline, NH 03033
Call or Mail
(603) 673-7441 (8am-5pm)
Andres Institute of Art, PO Box 226, Brookline, NH 03033-0226