The Big Idea

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William Lamson
Big Idea
The Big Idea

The Bottomlessness of a Pond

Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit

January 17 - March 11, 2020

The mid-19th century in the United States saw the emergence of a group of progressive thinkers who advocated for a new understanding of the relationship between the individual, the divine and the natural world. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller, among others, came together in a shared belief in humanitarian causes and religious purpose. Transcendentalism, as their theological and philosophical ideas became known, embraced elements of Unitarianism and advocated for a personal knowledge of God based in a rejection of materialism in favor of a spiritual experience of nature. In the U.S., Transcendentalism’s ideals found their most famous embodiment in Thoreau’s retreat to Walden Pond (then believed to be bottomless), where he spent a year living in a small, spare cabin, focusing on the spiritual rewards of a life lived in harmony with nature. This BIG IDEA project offers the notion that Transcendentalism’s retreat from the material in favor of a spiritual or divine encounter with the natural is an idea that continues to be relevant—and one that is perhaps more useful now than ever before.

View Exhibition Photo Gallery

Museum Exhibition

The exhibition includes work by six contemporary artists responding to Trancendentalism and its legacy.

Richard Barnes has made a series of photographs of the Montana cabin once inhabited by Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), now kept in an FBI storage locker. Four present the cabin floating against a black background, like evidence. Kaczynski’s cabin,modeled on Thoreau’s, offers an extreme interpretation of Transcendentalist ideas.

Sculptures and collages by Lesley Dill include fragments of text from the poetry of Emily Dickinson and writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne, both affiliated with Transcendentalism while never fully embracing it.

Spencer Finch made the sculpture Walden (surface/depth) after learning about Thoreau’s 1846 survey of Walden Pond. Finch performed that survey again, creating a sculptural record of his project that consists of the 120-foot-long rope he used for his Survey along with watercolor swatches he made at each sounding.

In 2014, the deCordova Museum commissioned William Lamson to make the film In the Roaring Garden, which he filmed using a floating camera obscura inside a 1:5 scale model of Thoreau’s cabin. The exhibition also includes photographs of Lamson’s Solarium, a structure similar to Thoreau’s cabin.

Jane Marsching made the prints in Ice Out at Walden in response to Thoreau’s notation of the day the winter ice cover disappeared at Walden Pond each year. Marsching’s prints use marks to pair Thoreau’s notes in his 1847 weather almanac with measurements collected from a contemporary Concord weather station.

Claire Sherman is known for large-scale paintings that envelop viewers in the natural world, placing them in tangles of dense tree branches or vines. Her dynamic and richly painted images celebrate nature as a place to escape the material world.

Associated BIG IDEA events

Big Idea
The Big Idea
Film
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2020 Film: The World Before Your Feet

4:30 PM

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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Film
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https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/clientFile/347532

2020 Film: The World Before Your Feet

7:00 PM

This event has already passed.
Big Idea
The Big Idea
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The World Before Your Feet - Matt Green walks in Hudson Yard

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9:30 AM

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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Adult Classes
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https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/clientFile/352860

Creative Jump-in: On Being Thoreau

with Tim Price

6:00 PM

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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Adult Classes
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https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/clientFile/348297

CANCELLED: 2020 Class: Healing Through Nature

with Cal Millar

6:00 PM

Hailey Classroom
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2020 Play Reading: The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail

By Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee, Directed by David Janeski

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Liberty Theatre
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Teens
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TEEN WORKSHOP: Landscape Photography

with Sophia DeWolfe (for kids in grades 6–12)

9:00 AM

Hailey Classroom
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Big Idea
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Youth & Families
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Family Day

FREE FAMILY DAY: Nature Play

(for families & kids ages 3–12 years old)

11:00 AM

The Museum
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Adult Classes
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Creative Jump-in: On Being Thoreau with Tim Price at Sun Valley Museum of Ar

2020 Creative Jump-in: On Being Thoreau

with Tim Price

6:00 PM

The Museum
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Lectures & Talks
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Cheryl Strayed

SOLD OUT! Lecture: Cheryl Strayed

"Wild"

6:30 PM

Church of the Big Wood
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
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Tiny Beautiful Things

Play Reading: Tiny Beautiful Things

by Cheryl Strayed

7:00 PM

Liberty Theatre
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
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Tiny Beautiful Things

Play Reading: Tiny Beautiful Things

by Cheryl Strayed

3:00 PM

Liberty Theatre
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Adult Classes
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Creative Jump-in: On Being Thoreau with Tim Price at Sun Valley Museum of Ar

2020 Creative Jump-in: On Being Thoreau

with Tim Price

6:00 PM

The Museum
This event has already passed.
Big Idea
The Big Idea
Adult Classes
Image
Creative Jump-in: On Being Thoreau with Tim Price at Sun Valley Museum of Ar

2020 Creative Jump-in: On Being Thoreau

with Tim Price

6:00 PM

The Museum
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Exhibition Tours & Events
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Lesley Dill Poem Suit

FREE Evening Exhibition Tour: The Bottomlessness of a Pond

Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit

5:30 PM

The Museum
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Exhibition Tours & Events
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William Lamson

FREE Gallery Walk: The Bottomlessness of a Pond

Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit

5:00 PM

The Museum
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Adult Classes
Image
Creative Jump-in: On Being Thoreau with Tim Price at Sun Valley Museum of Ar

2020 Creative Jump-in: On Being Thoreau

with Tim Price

6:00 PM

The Museum
This event has already passed.
Big Idea
The Big Idea
Film
Image
Five Season: the Gardens of Piet Oudolf

FILM: Five Seasons: the Gardens of Piet Oudolf

4:30 PM

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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Exhibition Tours & Events
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Claire Sherman

EVENING EXHIBITION TOUR: The Bottomlessness of a Pond

Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit

5:30 PM

The Museum
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Big Idea
The Big Idea
Film
Image
Five Season: the Gardens of Piet Oudolf

FILM: Five Seasons: the Gardens of Piet Oudolf

7:00 PM

This event has already passed.
Big Idea
The Big Idea
Adult Classes
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Self-Care Workshop with Jordyn Dooley

ART THERAPY: Self Care Workshop—the Green Studio

with Jordyn Dooley

10:00 AM

Sawtooth Botanical Garden
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