Art and Nature Come Together in a Once In a Lifetime Event at Massachusetts Audubon's Boston Nature Center

The family of the late artist Fay Chandler is inviting the entire community to celebrate her life at a free event at Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center onSunday , September 13, 2015 from 11 to 3 PM. The Center is located at 500 Walk Hill Avenue in Mattapan, MA. Chandler adored making art and seeing art, hearing music, as well as the great outdoors. This event is a combination of all her loves. Representatives of Montserrat College of Art in Beverly will be on site to demonstrate painting in “plein air” as will noted local artist Tova Speter who is well known for public mural making throughout Greater Boston. MusiConnects will also perform on site and the Nature Center itself will lead walks though this magnificent landscape.
“After my mother’s death last winter, our family decided we wanted to honor her life, her achievements and her spirit in a way that all Boston might enjoy,” said her son, Alfred D. (“Appy”) Chandler. “Mom loved to see people collaborate, and she would have been thrilled to see artists and nature lovers and those who want to discover both coming together at this event.”
The event is part of the Finding Fay Festival. To find out more visitwww.findingfay.com.

To stay up to date with all the upcoming events, by following #FindingFay on

facebook.com/FindingFay

instagram.com/FindingFay2015

twitter.com/FindingFay2015

About the Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center
Located just outside of downtown Boston on the former grounds of the Boston State Hospital, the Boston Nature Center (BNC) is a community-based urban sanctuary of over 67 acres and 2 miles of trails and boardwalks traversing meadows and wetlands, home to over 150 species of birds, 40 species of butterflies, and more than 350 species of plants. Year-round programs help foster an appreciation for nature and the environment.

About Fay Chandler
In late 1960, Fay Chandler was a 39-year-old mother of four who was unsure what to do with her life. She wanted to make a difference, but didn’t know how. She was living in Brookline; her husband taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His passion was writing history. She wanted a passion of her own. She enjoyed painting mugs which she sold at her children’s school’s fundraiser. Various classes followed: during the summer on Nantucket Island, during the winter at Boston’s Museum School.
In 1963, her husband accepted a job at Johns Hopkins University and the family moved to Baltimore. Fay applied and was accepted into the Hoffberger Graduate School at the Maryland Institute College of Art. After graduating in 1967, she opened a gallery in Baltimore’s very blue collar Fell’s Point neighborhood. In 1973, the family returned to New England when her husband accepted a professorship at Harvard Business School. Fay ventured into Boston’s South End where a community arts center was struggling to find itself. She rented studio space and became a stalwart supporter of the new Boston Center for the Arts.
In 1989, she used an inheritance to buy a long-decommissioned fire station in Brighton which she resurrected as artists’ studios. As Fay aged and her inventory of paintings and sculptures grew, she realized she needed a creative way to place them. In 1994, she gathered a group of friends; together they developed the concept of an organization that would act as a broker between artists with art to give and social service organizations with walls to cover. The concept became a reality. The Art Connection was born a year later and has now expanded into nearly a dozen cities.
Over the next 20 years, Fay continued to paint, holding three major retrospectives at the Cyclorama of the BCA. As her inheritance increased, so did her support of the arts and the underserved. Fay particularly believed in helping young people: as such she supported a vast array of arts programs throughout eastern Massachusetts. Fay Chandler died in Brighton on March 3, 2015. She was 92, a widow, living in her beloved Engine House in Brighton and still painting.
– A. D. Chandler
About Montserrat College of Art
Montserrat College of Art is a small, private, residential college of visual art and design, founded in 1970, by artists, for artists, educating the creative problem solvers of tomorrow. The college offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, adult and teen continuing education classes and three galleries exhibiting works by international, national and regional contemporary artists, intended to offer art education beyond the Montserrat classrooms through a series of public lectures, gallery talks, catalogs and events.
About musiConnects

MusiConnects is a non-profit organization created to establish and support educational and artistic residencies, in the Greater Boston area, based on chamber music. The common goal of the musiConnects community is to bring together people from a variety of backgrounds to meet and communicate through a shared language of music. Music allows us to learn about one another and make connections that transcend our differences.