Most people don’t want strangers showing up unannounced and walking around their property.
But not Pam Tarbell. She welcomes visitors to her 236 Hopkinton Road home between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. That’s because Tarbell’s home doubles as Mill Brook Gallery & Sculpture Garden, which is closing in on two decades of sharing art with the Concord community.
The gallery opened 19 years ago and the following year, Tarbell created the outdoor sculpture garden. She already had a bunch of gardens on the property she bought over 30 years ago, so all she had to do was clear the area in order to have enough space to strategically place 3-dimensional art work for people to walk around and enjoy.
“I thought it would be neat if we could do that here,” Tarbell said. “Twenty years ago we didn’t have a lot of visual art to see.”
And nothing really like what Tarbell had in mind. A few have popped up over the years around the state, but Tarbell’s is one that shouldn’t be missed.
“There was such a need for artists to show their work and sell their work,” she said. “I really did it as a public service for Concord.”
The sculpture garden opened this year in late June and goes through Oct. 18. The planning, though, begins in January, when Tarbell sends a quick note out to her artists. Some of her more established creators just tell her what they have and when they’ll bring it, while others send her images of work so she can check it out ahead of time.
“I look for the quality pieces, and a lot of these artists show nationally and internationally,” Tarbell said. “I tell them ‘just bring me your good pieces that people will want to see.’ ”
When Tarbell started out, the sculpture collection was small and just about anything someone wanted to submit would make the cut. But over the years it has grown, as has her contact list. So now she has a large pool of sculptors to work with and it really benefits all of you. Because the more she has to choose from, the better the work that will be on display. And if you haven’t been out there this year, there’s some pretty interesting stuff around her yard – 25 new pieces to be exact.
“I got connected to some very good people,” Tarbell said. “And it’s just kept growing.”
You might notice a few pieces from last year and the year before and the year before that, and that’s because sometimes the artists just don’t come back to pick up their work for one reason or another.
So Tarbell keeps them and just scatters the newer pieces where she can. There’s plenty of open space, so it’s not all that hard to put things in the right spot. The result: Even more stuff to look at and a richer, fuller sculpture garden.
And if this doesn’t fulfill your quest for knowledge, Tarbell will be the main speaker for this month’s Wednesday’s Wisdom this Wednesday at 6 p.m. Along with sculptors Joseph Gray and Rocco Carabonna, Tarbell will discuss her sculpture garden on site, showing people around and answering any questions. Wednesday’s Wisdom is held the second Wednesday of each month and is free and open to the public. It’s also a potluck, so bring your favorite dish to share.
“They’re casual and fun,” Tarbell said, who partners with Kimball-Jenkins to put on the monthly discussion.
The artists can start bringing their pieces May 1 every year and, as someone famous once said, the early bird gets the worm. In other words, the earlier they get there, the more choice they have for location. Some of the pieces are so large, they have to be moved with Tarbell’s Bobcat or assembled on site. The artists are self sufficient and know what they need to do.
“They have a good eye as to where their piece looks best,” she said.
Tarbell likes to talk to each artist and really find out how they came up with the idea and what techniques they used. Since the artists are rarely at the gallery, she needs to be able to explain it all to her visitors.
“I want it to be a friendly place to visit,” Tarbell said.
And those visitors come from all over the place. She has her regulars from the Concord area and around New Hampshire, but also seems to get quite a few from around the country and beyond. Since she isn’t in a central location, more often than not it’s a random drive-by that brings people to the gallery, while the world wide web has greatly helped spread the good word.
“I’m not in a hub where people pop their heads in,” she said.
She’s shipped pieces all over the world, to places like Norway and Australia.
If you plan on heading out to Mill Brook, you might want to make sure you have some time. It’s a little bit of a drive from downtown, but worth the time. There’s lots of stuff to look at and who knows, you might just end up with a new pieces for your garden.
