Special Projects
SIGNIFICANT
MONUMENTS
CONSERVATION
ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
Towards its long-term goal to conserve eleven
“high priority” monuments from its significant
monuments collection, Mount Auburn completed
two monument conservation projects in FY2018.
Composer Mary Bichner, Mount Auburn’s second
Artist-in-Residence, completed the second year
of her two-year appointment in the fall of 2017.
Bichner, who composed and recorded twelve new
classical works inspired by Mount Auburn’s spring
and autumnal landscapes during the previous year,
celebrated the end of her residency with two sold-
out concerts in Story Chapel in June and November
of 2017. In addition to the two public performances,
an album of Bichner’s compositions was released in
June as a free digital download, and Bichner’s twelve
arrangements were added to Mount Auburn’s new
visitor app as a curated tour.
Cemetery staff worked closely with the Unitarian
Universalist Church to raise funds for the
conservation of the monument to the beloved
Unitarian minister and social reformer Reverend
William Ellery Channing. The 19th-century marble
monument, designed by artist Washington Allston,
was washed, stabilized, and conserved and a border
of groundcover was planted to enhance the lot and
protect the monument’s base. A celebration of the
conserved monument and rehabilitated landscape
took place in October 2017.
In January 2018, Mount Auburn announced the
appointment of playwright Patrick Gabridge as its
third Artist-in-Residence. Gabridge will spend
calendar year 2018 developing a series of plays
inspired by Mount Auburn, which will be produced
as public performances in the next fiscal year.
Also completed this year was conservation of the
Copenhagen angel by noted 19th-century sculptor
Martin Milmore and dedicated to the memory of
Maria Frances Copenhagen. Conservators washed,
stabilized, and repointed the monument with support
from individual and institutional donors as well as
funds from the Cemetery’s Preservation Endowment
Fund. Following conservation, the family lot was
planted with groundcover to further protect and
enhance this significant monument.
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