Even though Wellesley’s most controversial piece of outdoor art — Tony Matelli’s undie-clad Sleepwalker at Wellesley College — has moved on, Wellesley has lots of public sculptures, paintings and other art to admire, if you know where to look.

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Colleges

Babson College

The Babson Globe

Moved to Kerry Murphy Healey Park in 2019

Babson College, Babson Globe — Babson Globe, summer 2023

Former location at Coleman Map Building

Babson Beaver at Webster Athletic Center

A little child will lead us (near Glavin Chapel)

Babson Totem outside athletics center

Previous location closer to athletics center

Small version of Totem at Babson, Wellesley — *Mini version of Totem located inside Webster Athletics Center*

Burned at the stake memorial (outside Coleman Hall)

Ominous Ikon #6 and smaller Yaddo Study, both made of Corten steel and located behind Kriebel Hall (by Dennis Kowal)

Bird at Park Manor South (no longer on display as of 2016)

bird-art babson — Bird art (via Babson College)

Wellesley College

John Rood’s Persephone, installed outside of Bates Hall in 1952. (More from Wellesley News)

Clement Meadmore’s Upsurge sculpture in front of Alumnae Hall, installed in 2012 (more from Swellesley). Was removed for cleaning summer 2024, and is expected to be back in place by the time students get back.

Wellesley College, outdoor art, Meadmore sculpture — Clement Meadmore’s monumental steel sculpture Upsurge. Characteristic for its fusion of geometry and fluidity, the work—which stands 20 x 13 x 8 feet and weighs nearly 1500 pounds—is sited between Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall and the Davis Parking Facility, on a small curved grassy landscape feature located near the College’s Route 135 main entrance. The sculpture was installed on Friday, April 13, 2012

Kenneth Snelson’s Mozart III has been on campus since 2008 (originally loaned, then gifted)

Wellesley College’s bronze Greek Goddess sculptures are under wraps for now while the Clapp Library, where they stand sentry, is under construction. Rather than moving the 100+ year old statues, it was decided that Hestia (goddess of the hearth, 1913) and Athena (goddess of wisdom, 1912) were better off left flanking the front entrance to the building during construction. So construction crews build sturdy wooden boxes around them until the project is complete.

The College expects the building to reopen for the spring 2025 semester.

Clapp Library, Wellesley College, statues, covered. Dec. 2023

Hestia

Athena

Robert Irwin’s Untitled (Filigreed Steel Line for Wellesley College) along shore of Lake Waban near Clapp Library

Shechinah Temptations (1976) by Jules Olitski, Wellesley College academic quad (had once started to sink, so was relocated on campus)

Two-faced woman at Tower Court (trying to get more details on this…)

Michael Steiner’s Long Spread (1974)

Wellesley College Davis Museum sculpture — Michael Steiner’s Long Spread, steel sculpture outside of Davis Museum

Beverly Pepper’s Milano

public art lake waban path wellesley college — Woodland Garden along Lake Waban path

Wellesley College’s outdoor sculpture map

MassBay Community College

Liminal Bloom, Andy Zimmerman

Wellesley Square

Kepes panels at Wellesley Free Library

Wellesley Library, Kepes panels — Kepes panels, Jan. 2024

“Reaching for Knowledge” by Nancy Schön was installed at the Wellesley Free Library entrance in October, 2023. Schön, who created the bronze sculpture, is an internationally known artist, whose most famous local work is the Make Way for Ducklings sculpture in the Boston Public Garden.

Girl with the Butterfly (Merrilyn D. Marsh) in Central Park at intersection of Central and Grove Streets

Church Square bench at Terrazza

K-12 Schools

The Grandmother Steps, by Louise McCagg, at Dana Hall School, outside the dining center

Saliba Courtyard at Dana Hall, located between the Upper School Classroom Building, the Lucia Farrington Shipley Science Center and Helen Temple Cooke Library Building. According to Dana Hall: “The architect of the Courtyard is Tom Wirth, who has contributed to PBS’s This Old House. Stone sculptor Roger Hopkins, who has narrated a PBS piece on Stonehenge, placed, sculpted, and polished rocks that were mined in a quarry in Chelmsford, Mass. The Courtyard design combines concentric circles in the midst of granite pavers and brick walkways. The center circle surrounds an in-ground fountain. The area closest to the Classroom Building offers a small patio with wooden benches. Many trees, including five large gingkos, enhance the Courtyard.”

Fenway mural at Upham (by Priscilla Christie). This mural has been painted over with the Upham Eagle….

Bonus (Fenway yard on Amherst Street)

Chalk outlines at Hardy Elementary School (Weston Road)

The chalk outlines are no more since Hardy School was torn down during summer 2024. A new school has been built on the property and well welcome students in Sept. 2024.

Hands wall at Bates Elementary School

Dana Hall School

Places of worship

Animal Lover (Merrilyn D. Marsh) at Cloister Garden at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Caron Tabb’s “Prisoner a-7713: Antisemitism = Racism = Hate Sliding Back in Time Or, Did We Actually Ever Move Forward?” at Temple Beth Elohim’s courtyard (10 Bethel Rd.)

Town buildings

Memorial to fallen officers at Wellesley Police station (dedicated in 2005)

Town Hall bell

Linden Square

LINX mural (painted over in 2023 to make way for Goddard School)

Alexander Golob’s 600-foot long mural, “Crayon Box.”

Mural in front of Linden Store (removed 2022)

Linden Square mural — Photo credit, Alexander Golob

Hunnewell Field

Trees on restroom building near tennis courts (removed 2022, building replaced)

Waban arches

Graffiti

Lake Waban

Hunnewell Topiary along trail around Lake Waban (now off-limits by Hunnewell family)

On the border

Goddesses of Horticulture (Flora, Ceres, and Pomona) at Elm Bank Reservation. Technically, Elm Bank Reservation’s Mass Horticultural Society has a Wellesley address, although the land in the park is in Dover.

Electrical boxes around town

The Wellesley Public Art Committee and Wellesley Police Department have joined forces to run this program of converting bland electrical boxes into work of art. You can check them all out via this online map.