Nancy Schön, the sculptor whose works includes the iconic ‘Make Way for Ducklings’ statue in the Public Garden, will join six other female artists from her kin for a Schön Family Art Show over Mother’s Day Weekend, from Friday, May 10, through Sunday, May 12, at 291 Otis St. in West Newton.
Besides Nancy, the art show will feature works by two of her daughters, Ellen Schön and Susan Schön, a ceramic artist and a designer, respectively. (Susan also collaborated with her mother on an 8-foot bronze caterpillar, which was installed in December of 2022 in the Waban Common in Nancy’s hometown of Newton.)
The art show will also feature four of Nancy’s artist granddaughters, including Jackie Schon, a painter and photographer; Mia Schon, a mosaic muralist; Hannah Schön, a photographer; and Charlie Dov Schön, a mixed media artist.
Each artist will display a few pieces from their particular medium at the art show.
“I think all of us, our family and Nancy, have always encouraged art and pursuing art as a profession,” said Mia, age 37, who has worked as a mosaic artist for around the past 10 years. She works mainly with tiles, glass, and mirrors, among other repurposed or found objects and creates mainly “large-scale murals,” which as pieces of public work, she said connect directly to what Nancy does.
“Personally I learned to make public art directly from my grandmother,” said Mia. ““Many artists have mentors, and we are lucky enough for our mentor to be our grandmother, which is very unique.”
And since the art show is an intergenerational outing for the Schön family, Mother’s Day seemed like a fitting time to stage the event, said Mia.
These same seven artists also collaborated at an art show in July of 2022, which was supported via a grant from the Boston nonprofit Combined Jewish Philanthropies and took place at The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) at Brandeis University in Waltham.
For Nancy, now 95, her venerable career in public art in itself is almost too much to comprehend, let alone displaying her work alongside other female artists from her multiple generations of her family.
“I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be a professional ‘Public Art Sculptor,’” Nancy wrote in an email. “But to be showing my art with not only my children but my grandchildren seems like sheer magic – simply marvelous. Or is it about genes? Or did they catch the bug because they watched me in my studio from the time they were little?”
Meanwhile, Nancy is also quick to add that she likely inherited the artistic ‘bug’ from her own mother.
“My mother did some painting but whatever she did had an artistic way. The way she dressed, the way she set a table, always beautiful flower arrangement on the table and around the house. She was a beautiful woman and had all her hats made by a woman named Fanette, whose clients went to Newbury Street.”
An opening reception for the Schön Family Art Show will take place on Friday, May 10, from 5 to 8 p.m., and gallery hours are on Saturday and Sunday, May 11 and 12, from noon to 5 p.m.