DeCordova Sculpture Park--A Dog-Friendly Art Museum

Only the outdoor sculpture park, of course, not the museum building. But it's still a great outing. Pack a picnic, bring your dogs, bring some friends, and have a great day walking and looking at some impressive and interesting art as well as a lovely landscape. This baseball player graces the beginning of our walk today, near the parking lot and the gift shop:

We started the day with a picnic lunch. No picnic tables at the DeCordova, so we brought a sheet to use, which the dogs appreciated:

The first installation that stopped us in our tracks was Kitty Wales' Pine Sharks:

There were other interesting sights

along the way

but the next installation stop us was this one, called Three Lines. Initially I took several stills to capture the changing positions--and then whacked myself on the head and switched to video mode:

The dogs, also, checked out the art, although canine criticism is strictly forbidden in the park:

We enjoyed studying this Ent from various angles, although for some reason the artist does not identify it as an Ent, and calls it "Venusvine."

Another Kitty Wales piece, "Feral Goose."

That's just a taste of what we saw today, and as we were leaving we discovered that we had "saved" another entire section of the park for a future visit. Many of the pieces are of course "don't touch," but some are interactive, making this a great excursion for teaching kids that art and museums are fun and interesting, as well as a great way to have an art-enhanced walk with your dogs. As the school year winds to an end, and the weather hopefully gets more reliably nice, start planning for a day there, with kids, dogs, both, or neither. Do plan to carry your own trash (or just move it back to your car before continuing the day) because there are no trash cans. Check with your local library to see if they have passes for the DeCordova; we used a pass that admitted four at no charge. This is a great local treasure, not far from Boston; take advantage of it!