Nancy Schön (born 1928) is a sculptor of public art displayed internationally. She is best known for her work in the Boston, Massachusetts area, notably her bronze duck and ducklings in the

Boston Public Garden The Public Garden, also known as Boston Public Garden, is a large park in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to Boston Common. It is a part of the Emerald Necklace system of parks, and is bounded by Charles Street and Boston Common to t ...

, a recreation of the duck family in

Robert McCloskey John Robert McCloskey (September 15, 1914 – June 30, 2003) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He both wrote and illustrated eight picture books, and won two Caldecott Medals from the American Library Association for ...

's children's classic ''

Make Way for Ducklings ''Make Way for Ducklings'' is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. First published in 1941 by the Viking Press, the book tells the story of a pair of mallards who raise their brood of ducklings on an island in ...

''. It is featured on the

Boston Women's Heritage Trail The Boston Women's Heritage Trail is a series of walking tours in Boston, Massachusetts, leading past sites important to Boston women's history. The tours wind through several neighborhoods, including the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, commemorating w ...

. In 1991,

Barbara Bush Barbara Pierce Bush (June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of President George H. W. Bush, and the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She previously w ...

gave a duplicate of this sculpture to

Raisa Gorbachev Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva (russian: link=no, Раи́са Макси́мовна Горбачёва Romanized ''Raisa Maksimovna Gorbachyova'', , Титаренко; 5 January 1932 – 20 September 1999) was a Soviet-Russian activist and phil ...

as part of the START Treaty, and the work is displayed in Moscow's Novodevichy Park. In 1952, after graduation from Boston's Museum School, she married Donald Alan Schön (1930–1997), and her series, ''The Reflective Giraffe'', with a giraffe as the central icon, is a tribute to her husband. Since 1966, she has lived in

West Newton, Massachusetts West Newton is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Among the oldest of the thirteen Newton villages, the West Newton Village Center is a National Register Historic District. ...

. In 2009, Nancy Schön was a participant at "Engaging Reflection," a Canadian seminar, which offered this profile of her: :Nancy prides herself in having work that is totally interactive. Her sculptures are available for people to touch, sit on, hug and interact with every day of the year, day or night. Nancy Schön’s major works include ''Make Way for Ducklings'' which is located in the Boston Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts and the ''Tortoise and Hare'' which is a metaphor for the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was ...

and is at the finish line in

Copley Square Copley Square , named for painter John Singleton Copley, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to i ...

. Nancy married Donald Schön in 1952 and feels their work was very similar. Donald’s writing about “reflection in action” parallels the process of creating a sculpture as the professional reflects on their practice in the midst of practice in order to problem solve. As Nancy creates a work of art, her research is a quest for knowledge and of understanding issues and of learning. “We learn so much from our inquiry but as my husband said, ‘we know more than we can say’ and I would always say back to him that I think our unconscious is brilliant!” Nancy was recently awarded an honorary doctor of law degree from Mount Ida College in honor of her work in public sculpture.Engaging Reflection
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Gallery

File:Make way for ducklings statue.jpg,

in the

, Boston, Massachusetts. File:Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore Sculptures by Nancy Schon.jpg, "

Winnie the Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character was the book '' Wi ...

" and "

Eeyore Eeyore ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' books by A. A. Milne. He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the- ...

" sculptures at the Newton Free Library

References

External links

About Nancy Schön''Winnie the Pooh'' and ''Eeyore'' sculptures by Nancy Schon
at the Newton Free Library in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schon, Nancy 1928 births Living people American sculptors School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni