Category Archives: Upcoming events

Art on the Trails 2025 at Beals Preserve – Call for Art

Southborough Open Land Foundation and Art on the Trails Program Director Catherine Kundrath Weber are pleased to announce the launch of the 9th annual juried exhibition, Art on the Trails: Number 9, representing the 9th year of the show.

We are thrilled to announce that the exhibition will be juried by sculptor Madeleine Lord. Learn more about Madeleine here: https://artonthetrails.com/2025-art-juror/.

With the generous support again this year from Southborough Community Fund, all accepted artists will again receive $100 stipends for exhibiting.

The call for art opens on February 15 and closes on April 15. Learn more about the theme and submission guidelines here: https://artonthetrails.com/call-for-art/.

The 2025 Art on the Trails outdoor exhibition will be installed in the Beals Preserve, Southborough, Massachusetts on Saturday, June 14. It will remain in the Preserve until September 14, 2025.

This year’s theme is Number 9. We invite artists to explore the many symbolic meanings of this powerful number.

SOLF’s Create in the Woods Challenge

Runs November through May

The Challenge:
• Go to a SOLF property that has trails.
• Go with no tools or materials.
• Explore and notice what is there: like sticks, rocks, colored leaves, fallen trees, acorns, etc.
• Choose a spot next to a trail and begin collecting things to build with or arrange.
• Create something using just your hands: like a shelter; a fun, little house; an arrangement of things. Hang things from branches, have fun with it.

Why?
Because it is so good for us! Being outdoors in a natural setting calms us. It is like a “reset” button to lower stress and anxiety. Children naturally “take to the woods!” Early exposure through family walks is a good way to establish this connection, especially if the walk is a “child-centered” one, focused not on exercise or conversation, but rather on being curious, tuning in to what is around us, standing in one place for a little while and just looking and listening. And then making something!

Rules:
Rule #1: bring no tools or materials.
Rule #2: create near but not on the trail.
Rule #3: take a picture and send it to info@solf.org, with subject “Create” and including the name of the property.
Rule #4: Do not touch anyone else’s creation.
Rule #5: Take as long as you want and even return to add more.

Please note that this program is for SOLF properties only. Regulations regarding building cairns or other structures may be different on other properties. View SOLF properties here.