This coming Saturday is the second edition of our Lowell Walks summertime guided walking tours of downtown Lowell. Beginning at 10 am at the National Park Visitor Center at 246 Market Street, the tour is free, requires no advance registration, and will be conducted rain or shine.

This week’s tour is Lowell Public Art Collection with Paul Marion and Rosemary Noon – In the 1980s, amazing sculptures created by artists with national and international reputations began showing up at locations near the canals in downtown Lowell. Each artwork in its own way is a commentary on one of the themes of Lowell National Historical Park (labor, technology, water-power, capital, and the industrial city). See the sculptures up close, hear about the controversies, and learn the story-behind-the-story of this collection whose commissioning value was about $1 million. Paul Marion is the Executive Director of Community and Cultural Affairs at UMass Lowell; Rosemary Noon is Assistant Director of the Lowell Plan, Inc., and a creative economy consultant. Together, they managed the design selection process and installation of many of the monumental works—and lived to talk about.

Here are some of the sculptures that I expect will be visited by the tour:

Homage to Women

Human Construction

Pawtucket Prism

Agapetime

Lowell Sculpture No. 1

Please check out the full schedule of Lowell Walks and consider putting several on your calendar.