Free First Thursdays at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Join us on the first Thursday of every month for a restorative evening of discovery and community. Museum admission is free from 3 pm through 9 pm and programs kick off at 5 pm. Explore the magic of the Museum’s gardens and galleries at night and stop by Café G for dinner and drinks.

Celebrate the arrival of spring with relaxation and ease this month. Enjoy meditative and immersive sound baths in the Courtyard with sound healing practitioner Marlene Boyette to experience the hanging nasturtiums from a place of calm. Visit the Studio for botanical art-making activities inspired by the work of Boston painter and illustrator Polly Thayer Starr. Learn more about current exhibitions Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer and Fellow Wanderer: Isabella's Travel Albums in gallery talks and film screenings throughout the evening.

Art-Making | 5 - 8 PM

• Bertucci Education Studio
• Take inspiration from the works of Boston painter and illustrator Polly Thayer Starr. Explore different art-making techniques to create your own botanical-themed work of art. Prompts and materials will be provided.

Sound Baths with Sound Healing Practitioner Marlene Boyette | 5:30 - 6:15 PM and 7:15 - 8 PM

• Courtyard
• Unwind and enjoy meditative sound baths with trauma-informed yoga and sound healing practitioner Marlene Boyette. Experience the Courtyard and nasturtiums from a place of calm during this immersive sound experience.

Ask A Horticulturist | 5:30 - 7:00 PM

• Living Room
• Celebrate the arrival of spring and join Museum Horticulturist Amelia Green to learn more about the flowering nasturtium vines that make their brief—but dramatic—appearance in the Courtyard each April.

Film Screenings | 3 - 9 pm

• Calderwood Hall
• Enter the world of legendary artist Betye Saar, whose work is featured in the current exhibition Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer. Learn more about her creative practice and process in this short film, Betye Saar: Taking Care of Business, a LACMA production directed by Christine Turner and screened courtesy of LACMA. The film lasts approximately 8 minutes and will be screened on a loop with An Introduction to Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Gardner Museum throughout the evening.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Marlene Boyette is a trauma-informed somatic and sound meditation practitioner, educator, and community activist/disruptor. Marlene aims to use movement, stillness, and sound to encourage restoration, joy, and healing within communities of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities, especially those inhabited by Black and Brown people.

Marlene has cultivated and held space for various organizations and institutions within Boston, such as The Massachusetts Black Lawmakers Roundtable, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Company One, Northeastern University, MIT, The ICA, and The Greenway. Marlene’s most recent collaboration with Masary Studio and Mount Auburn Cemetery was a sound meditation recorded and licensed as part of the Winter 2022 outdoor installation, SOLSTICE.

As a practitioner, Marlene believes the modalities that she offers can be used as tools to activate social change. She aims to create welcoming spaces for all to be soft and experience more ease and has been recognized locally and nationally by The Boston Globe, Getaway House, and Lululemon for her contributions and dedication to community, equity, social justice, and wellness. Frank Hatch Free First Thursday: Francis "Frank" Hatch (1925-2010) was a longtime Gardner Museum trustee, community advocate, and supporter of the arts and culture in the city.

Marlene Boyette photo courtesy of the artist.

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