This Fall, Duxbury's Art Complex Museum Is Looking Past Its Own Walls

On a gray, rainy day in August, a small group from the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration and the Town of Duxbury watched the Temple Street Dam come down. NSRWA's account of the removal says the project took 14 years of planning, and taking down the concrete structure took less than 15 minutes.

Two months later, the same watershed group's work is hanging in the galleries at 189 Alden Street. The Art Complex Museum is free, and this fall it has turned its attention outward. Its main exhibition is about the rivers that run through town. Its grounds became an accredited arboretum in August. It also has a new trail that you need a hint from the front desk to find.

The dam behind the exhibition is in Duxbury

The Temple Street Dam was also known as Boys and Girls Club Dam #2. The town acquired the dam and the pond behind it in the 1990s as part of the Camp Wing Conservation Area. NSRWA says removing it reconnected more than four miles of stream and restored access to 6.5 acres of open-water wetland.

It was the second recent removal on the South River. The Veterans Memorial Park Dam and its fish ladder came out in January 2025, and NSRWA has since reported river herring back in the upper reaches of the river. According to the watershed group, Chandlers Pond Dam is now the only dam left on the South River mainstem.

This is why "Beneath the Surface" lands differently this year. The exhibition takes up the old mill dams that break South Shore rivers into pieces, and Duxbury has just removed one in a town conservation area.

What "Beneath the Surface" puts on the walls

The museum produced Beneath the Surface with NSRWA. In NSRWA's description, the work goes past the calm look of the North and South Rivers to the pressures underneath: historic mill dams, pavement that keeps rain from recharging the aquifers that supply local faucets, fertilizer runoff, bacterial spikes after storms that can close shellfish beds for months, algal blooms, and the heavier flooding and longer heat that come with climate change.

NSRWA's promotions name work by Lisa Marder, whose Towards Sunset leads the exhibit listing, as well as Lisa Goren, Agusta Agustsson, Kimberlee Alemian and Yvonne Lamotte.

The exhibition opened October 11 and closes in mid-November. The museum's homepage gives November 15 as the final day, but NSRWA's event page says November 13, so check with the museum before planning a late visit.

Thursday, November 12 is the evening to go if you'd like to talk with the people doing the river work. A free meet-and-greet with artists and scientists runs in the gallery from 5:30 to 6 p.m. A panel of artists and NSRWA scientists follows from 6 to 7 p.m. in the main museum building. Registration is requested.

The grounds are now part of the collection

In his October note on the museum's site, executive director Peter A. Mello places the watershed show alongside a second change outside the building:

"We have spent more than half of a century doing that with our extraordinary collection of over 8,000 items. We are now doing it with a marsh, a herring run, a stand of trees, and a bay that still produces world famous oysters."

In August the museum earned Level I arboretum accreditation through ArbNet. Mello's note counts more than 400 plants in over 100 varieties, all documented and cared for as a living outdoor museum. The Duxbury Clipper reported that the inventory started in 2025. Intern Weston Ambrose recorded the plants, and the accreditation covers the trees and shrubs around the galleries, sculpture, gardens and Japanese Tea House. The Clipper also reports that the museum is now listed in the Morton Register of Arboreta.

Level I means specific things. ArbNet's standards call for a plan, a governing group, at least one staff member or volunteer, a labeled collection of at least 25 kinds of woody plants, and at least one tree-related public event each year. The museum's documented collection is several times that minimum.

The new trail is called a "secret forest trail." Mello writes that the secret isn't kept very well, and that asking at the front desk may get you a hint or two about where it starts.

The Tea House has been on the grounds much longer. Sho-fu-an was designed by Sano Gofu and built in Kyoto in 1969. It was reassembled at the museum in 1975 under the direction of Yasahiro Iguchi of the MFA Boston. Its tea garden, the roji, uses stones, a lantern, a water basin, stepping stones and simple plantings. The 2026 tea ceremony season ended October 18, so for the rest of the year the garden is something to walk past on the grounds. No ceremonies are scheduled.

Mello took over in September 2024. He followed Charles Weyerhaeuser, who led the museum for more than 50 years, and came from WaterFire Providence, where he had been managing director and co-CEO. The Clipper's September profile describes him bringing collaborative art forms and groups to the museum since then.

Thursday nights carry the theme into December

The museum stays open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. The Thursday Nights page lists a 5 p.m. reception with light refreshments, followed by a program. Several programs on the late-fall schedule tie back to what's on view, from found objects and ecology to the scholars' rocks exhibition that runs into January. Everything below is free, but most programs ask you to register through the museum's Eventbrite links.

Holly Days needs a note. The museum lists Holly Days Duxbury 2026 as "Saturday, November 29," but November 29, 2026 falls on a Sunday. Check the family activities page before you go. The program includes a holiday concert by New England Conservatory students, holiday printmaking from carved wood blocks, and a new Elf Seek and Find with elves hidden around the museum and grounds. Art Cart takes place in the Judah Alden Studio. It's hands-on art-making based on what's in the galleries, open to all ages, and no experience is needed.

The Berliner talk on December 3 goes with Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars' Rocks, on view through January 17, 2027. That exhibition includes Danielle Krcmar's The Little Plot, so the November 5 talk is a chance to hear one of its artists before Berliner covers the tradition behind it.

Before you go

• Address and hours: 189 Alden Street, Duxbury. Open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., and until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays and most major holidays.
• Cost: The museum and its exhibitions are free.
• Closing soon: Quilted Visions: Ann Brauer and Marge Tucker ends November 8.
• On view for a while: Why We LOVE It: Staff Picks from the ACM Collection runs through January 17, 2027, and Under Construction: America at 250 runs through August 29, 2027.
• Outside: Ask at the front desk for a hint about the forest trail. The labeled plantings and the Tea House garden are on the grounds around the buildings.

The trees, the marsh and the river get the museum's attention this fall, and they come up in every new build too, from which trees stay on a lot to where the water goes. If you're thinking about building, The Guimares Group can take you through each milestone and send weekly build photos as your home goes up. Talk to a New Construction Specialist to get started.