Month: December 2023

by Noelle Stockwell

With the changing weather and blooming fall foliage, I love going to the state parks and forests controlled and maintained by Massachusetts’ Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). Looking at the Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park through DCR’s online website, they have created interpretive resources for self-guided walking tours in Uxbridge, Blackstone, and Millville. Out of these options I chose the Millville Walking Tour which highlights the history of Millville, the Blackstone Canal, and the surrounding railroad and mill industries. Such an outreach resource provides enduring opportunities for visitors to engage with cultural heritage landscapes without having to establish additional staffing or support resources to be enjoyed.

The self-guided walking tour resource is formatted as a multiple-page pamphlet with a map, historical description, points of interest photographs, and suggestions for sites in the surrounding area. It is available as a PDF file through the DCR website, which I accessed through my phone. The Millville Walking Tour includes the Southern New England Trunkline Trail,  Lock #21 on the Blackstone Canal, the Triad Bridge, and sites along Central St in Millville as points of interest. There is a convenient, free parking lot located next to the trail where the walking tour begins. It was easy to follow the trail down and back, following the map and directions to a couple of the side trails, and then return to make a loop along Canal Street to view some of the industrial buildings and canal sites. Overall it was a very enjoyable walk and it connected me with the park in a way I otherwise would not have through introducing the cultural heritage context of the area.

The self-guided nature of DCR’s walking tour was a major benefit. I could choose to participate in the established resource when best for me personally, and can return to it if I so choose. I could also choose to go at my own pace, taking the time to read and reflect on the descriptions created in the walking tour pamphlet. A degree of historical imagination was required to understand the canal and railroad operations described since many of the structures are no longer existing or functional. However, what was incredibly useful were the historical photographs included in the pamphlet that portrayed the historical landscape described.

Although I enjoyed many aspects of the walking tour, some information could be added to the pamphlet to make use easier. One of the first problems encountered was in where to go to begin the walk tour. Although there is a section for directions from surrounding interstates, a street address or name of the parking lot would have required less investigative work on the part of the visitor and made locating the property easier. I also found it difficult to plan as there was no estimated time or distance the self-guided walk would take. Typically this is information that would be valuable to visitors, and was a feature I noted in several of the other DCR self-guided walking tours I viewed.

Given the informational tone of the pamphlet, it would be more appropriate and accessible for older students to adults. While on my walk I saw many other people using the park space, but it seemed like I was the only person using the walking guide resource and engaging in the interpretive material. Instead, I saw people of all ages jogging, biking, walking their dogs, or otherwise enjoying a walk. People are drawn to the park without the interpretive material that peaked my interest. Being located along the Southern Trunkline Trail, one of Massachusetts’ longest rail trails, I was unsurprised to find others enjoying the space.

Observing how many people were naturally drawn to the park, I was disappointed by the lack of signage advertising the opportunities available. When entering from the parking lot there are limited signs, none of which make mention to the self-guided walking tour. One sign has an interpretive description of the history of the area, of which the walking tour could be a great supplement with the addition of a QR-code or other reference to the online resource. The other board was a covered message board with only a couple flyers related to cycling trails. Currently there is ample space that a printout of the self-guided walking tour could easily be added. Following the path, there are also no markers to the points of interest mentioned in the walking tour, some of which could be entrance points to engage passing visitors. Some of the features visible from the pathways, such as the crossing rail lines viewable from the Triad Bridge and Lock #21 along the Canal are visually and artifactually interesting that I believe visitors would be drawn to background information if present and easily available. It is a missed opportunity to not engage those visitors naturally coming to the area who are not doing prior research.

            The Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park covers an expansive area and is only a portion of the public land managed by the DCR. Though I see opportunities for improvement and greater attention to detail in the current version of Millville’s self-guided walking tour, it was likely a comparably low-cost outreach project to add greater detail of the Park’s cultural heritage background. Those who are interested in the heritage and historical background of the area have access to it if, like me, they are interested and go searching for it. Advertising the interpretive resources available through signage could make the resource more successful amongst those drawn more organically to the Park and the Southern Trunkline Trail.

For further reading:

Millville Walking Tour

https://www.mass.gov/doc/millville-walking-tour/download

Blackstone Walking Tour

https://www.mass.gov/doc/blackstone-walking-tour/download

Towpath Walking Tour

https://www.mass.gov/doc/towpath-walking-tour/download

DCR Programs and Events, Interpretive Programs

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/dcr-programs-and-events#interpretive-programs-

Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Parkhttps://www.mass.gov/locations/blackstone-river-and-canal-heritage-state-park

by Katie Kerekes

Tucked off to the side of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, past the condos and tennis courts, is the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum. This beautiful stone building is the former High Service Pumping Station, which pumped water from the reservoir to Boston. While the station was decommissioned in the 1970s, the reservoir remains an emergency backup source of water. Given this history, the Waterworks Museum is unsurprisingly best known for its Great Engines Hall, which houses the three historic, steam-powered pumping engines, and can count school groups, nonprofits, and wedding parties among its regular visitors.  

Beyond its engines, the museum also regularly hosts special exhibitions in a small space overlooking the Hall. This season’s special exhibit, Reservoir: What the Water Knows, examines our complex interactions with water. Curated by Arlinda Shtuni, the exhibition

presents new and freshly rendered works by six noted local artists that probe our complicated relationship with water. The artists look deeply into how climate warming is impacting us–both from the outside in and the inside out–and inquire: how are our watery bodies registering and responding to these shifts?[1]

The multimedia show not only features local professional artists, but also includes soundscapes created by current Northeastern University music students. The result is an effective, locally-rooted and immersive exhibit, where visitors are asked to visually and aurally consider their personal relationship with water. The exhibit is also intentionally interactive; visitors are presented with a series of questions about their relationship with water, ranging from the mundane—“do you have a favorite water shape?”—to the existential: “Our bodies are mostly made of water. Our hearts are full of water. So is our blood, sweat and tears. As the climate warms, what do you think happens inside of us?” These answers are collected physically in a clear glass jar outside the exhibit and electronically in a survey that will “remain open in perpetuity.” This is a low-stakes way of getting visitors to participate with the exhibit, and a way to extend the influence of the collection to audiences who may not make it to the museum in person.

In late September, the museum hosted three local authors for “What the Water Knows: A Reading.” The free community event was so well-attended that the organizers needed to set up additional chairs in the exhibition space to fit everyone. The three authors featured had extremely different styles of writing, but all focused on the theme of water and its powerful nature. The first author, Nina MacLaughlin, read two excerpts from Wake, Siren, her 2019 retelling of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. These poetic verses highlighted the anthropomorphic nature of water in myths, as well as the water inside our bodies. The second author, Christina Thompson, read a chapter from her nonfiction exploration of the wide Pacific, Sea People, which touched on themes of colonialism and water as movement. Tracy Winn closed out the night with a short story based on a recent devastating New England flood, drawing attention to water’s destructive power.

The activation of the exhibition objects through the use of reading aloud created an interesting layering of space. Attendees were surrounded by art inspired by water, listening to texts inspired by water, overlooking massive engines that ran on water, and were physically situated next to a body of water. This event was a wonderful entry point into exploring the connections between artistic creativity, industry, and the environment, as well as a fun and out of the ordinary way to interact with the museum. It effectively connected community members to each other, to local art, to the museum, and to the reservoir.

Afterward, attendees were welcome to chat informally with the invited authors and exhibition curator or explore the Great Engine Hall. It became clear at this point that there was a strong sense of community among the audience. Attendees were mainly drawn from nearby condo residents, writers’ groups, and friends and family of the artists and authors represented; all seemed to know each other. It felt like a bunch of old friends catching up, which was beautiful to watch but difficult for an outsider to feel welcome and break into these conversations. The event fostered existing community, but did not extend it to newcomers.

The audience (and the authors) heavily skewed white and over fifty, which is likely a reflection of the neighborhood and of the writer groups present. This was somewhat frustrating, as a major theme of the exhibition and readings is the precarity of our water resources and the impact of climate change, which will disproportionately affect young people and minorities. More efforts could be made in diversifying the audience, in terms of both age and race; perhaps tapping into the university student partners would be a start, or inviting authors from marginalized communities to participate in future events.

The museum has put together an impressive number of outreach programs centered around the special exhibit. June saw a music ensemble performance, while October featured a multidisciplinary panel of artists, activists and writers discussing the connection between water infrastructure, cities, and climate change. The exhibition’s closing reception in November will include a poetry reading. Based on this programming calendar, it seems that the museum is deeply interested in and effective at reaching creative audiences and tapping into existing local communities of writers, artists, poets, and other creatives. Perhaps this is another area for inclusion; the museum could reach out to more diverse groups of creatives and intentionally invite communities from beyond the Chestnut Hill neighborhood.   

The Metropolitan Waterworks Museum is open Wednesday-Sunday with free admission for all. Reservoir: What the Water Knows closes on November 18, 2023. A closing celebration will be held on November 18 to mark the end of the exhibition. Tickets are available on the event webpage.

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[1] “Reservoir: What the Water Knows,” Waterworks Museum, accessed October 12, 2023, https://waterworksmuseum.org/exhibits/reservoir-what-the-water-knows/.