NAHANT — A collection of paintings of East Point will be auctioned off to help preserve the property. The art will be available for viewing online Friday.
Following the sale, on Nov. 17, there will be an art exhibition and auction at Nahant Town Hall, hosted by Nahant Preservation Trust. Money raised through the event will go toward the land’s preservation.
The Trust was created to advance the preservation of open space and conservation land as well as historically significant properties in the smallest town in the Commonwealth.
Most of the 40 pieces that will be shown were created at the end of August during an En Plein Air Weekend at East Point and 40 Steps. The pieces are mainly interpretations and representations of East Point, its flowers and birdlife and its relationship to lives lived in concert with the sea, said Jim Walsh, chair of the East Point Arts-Nahant working group. There will be other representations of Nahant as well.
“The goal of East Point Arts-Nahant is twofold,” said Walsh. “First, to memorialize in art that which is threatened. The natural beauty of the rocky New England coast is sublime and, in a very real sense, it begins at East Point in Nahant, and continues on to the Northeast.”
“The second goal is to raise funds to support what we believe to be a strong case in court,” he said.
East Point has become a place of controversy in recent months as Northeastern University has proposed an expansion to the Marine Science Center.
Northeastern has proposed a 60,000-square-foot expansion on its 20-acre parcel. If approved, the project would be built into and atop the existing Murphy Bunker. The new facility would add research and teaching space, the same activities the center has been engaged in since they opened in 1967, according to the school’s website.
But many Nahant residents have voiced strong objections to the plan. In public meetings, voters let it be known they plan to stop any expansion.
“As East Point Arts-Nahant, the Trust issued a ‘Call to Artists’ at a time of crisis,” said Walsh. “Northeastern University announced its intention to build a Walmart-sized office building at East Point in Nahant, an act similar to putting a Walmart in the middle of Old Town in Marblehead or in the Boston Public Garden or on Walden Pond.”
The collection will be available for preview beginning Friday at www.32auctions.com/KeepNahantWildART. Online and silent auction bidding will close at 9:15 p.m. on Nov. 17.
The following day from noon to 3 p.m., there will be a Family Day with no admission charge to see the art that was auctioned, and a selection of art from the collections of the Nahant Public Library and the Nahant Historical Society.
