Above: TTOR and SYFS are bringing “Winged Escape” installations to Chestnut Hill Farms to encourage the public to enjoy Hope Walks during Mental Health Awareness month.
Tomorrow is the first day of Mental Health Awareness month. Each year, Southborough Youth & Family Services embraces the national campaign to raise awareness and fight stigma around mental health. This May, the Trustees of Reservations and a Southborough artist have partnered with them to help.
All month, the public can enjoy a special “Hope Walk” on the Chestnut Hill Farm trails.
A press release from TTOR explains the walk is:
a unique blend of nature, art and self-care – featuring an interactive art installation along the Chestnut Hill Farm trails.
Sarah Cassell, the Director of Southborough Youth and Family Services is quoted as explaining:
We have all been through so much this year and now more than ever, we need hope, healing, and rejuvenation. The Hope Walk is a beautiful opportunity for all of us — individuals and families — to get outside, breath the fresh air, move their bodies, take in the beautiful scenery, and reflect on ways to continue to take care of ourselves and each other on the road ahead.
The “Winged Escape” installation is a series of images by artist Chelsea Bradway with fellow artists Patrick Steele, Max Francis and Miley Francis. The installations are a series of five large painted pairs of wings:
Throughout the month of May, visitors are invited to walk the trails of Chestnut Hill Farm and discover the five screens of painted wings. Visitors are encouraged to take photos of the wings, pose in front of the wings, breathe in the fresh air and experience the feelings of hope, healing and rejuvenation. . .
Artist Chelsea Bradway explains, “We encourage visitors to pose in front of the screens and become part of the art. By donning wings, the person can imagine flying in the meadow or visualize escaping from confinement, societal roles, or their own history. Escaping, as it were, is a way to imagine growing away from or towards another physical form or seed of consciousness.”
Bradway held a similar exhibit at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts last summer. (See image right and check out more photos from that here.)
At each installations, visitors will also find Mental Health Awareness Month information.
As long as I’m covering Chestnut Hill Farm, I’ll share a video from a WCVB visit to the farm about a month ago. You can enjoy their fun footage of animal life at the farm, both livestock and wildlife, here.
