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We've been back home for a week now, but images of the fabulous artworks we viewed in Boston keep popping into my thoughts. The sheer volume of paintings by John Singer Sargent, for example, one of my all-time favourite artists - for his landscapes and watercolours rather than for his portraits - was truly impressive.
So I'd planned to write this week about the wide range of Sargent’s works we saw in Boston; from the monumental "El Jaleo" and massive "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" to small pencil sketches and studies. But with only a few days left until Halloween, I've decided to keep Mr. Sargent for a future post and write instead about the unexpected art we found in... Salem.
Yes, that Salem! We took a day-trip from Boston out to the site of the infamous Witch Trials, more for the history of this port town than for what called "witch kitsch". It's only about a forty-five minute train ride from Boston's North Station, but feels more like a trip backwards in a time machine - if you focus on the historic areas.
That's easier said than done in October, as Salem hosts a giant fair-like event all month, billed as "Salem Haunted Happenings". It's apparently "the largest celebration of Halloween in the world", with in excess of a half-million visitors in October to the attractions, museums, parades, parties, vendor fairs, walking tours, and other special events in what's essentially a fairly small town.
Put another way, the town has a generous 4,000 public parking spaces, yet often receives 100,000 visitors a day in October.
To avoid the crowds as much as possible, we visited midweek, taking an early train to arrive before anything had even opened for the day. This gave us an opportunity to look around before the crowds arrived, and to be almost first in line for same-day-only tickets at one of the 'museum' attractions.
The first artworks we admired were along the Essex Street pedestrian mall, a series of outdoor figureheads created by local artists. Figureheads like these would have graced the bows of ships visiting Salem Harbour in the 1700s, hence the decision to feature seventeen pieces in the "Lady of Salem Maritime Public Art Exhibition".

The next artwork we sought out was the massive mural for the "Salem Witch Trials 1692".
At this point, I should explain that the witch-related 'museums' of Salem feature primarily reproductions. Until the 1970s, the area's Witch Trials history was considered something shameful that should be hidden away, so most of the original buildings and sites involved were altered, destroyed or renovated through the years.

In the 1970s, having experienced the 'witch hunts' of McCarthyism, several American scholars became interested in the mass hysteria aspects of the Witch Trials; this soon led to an upswell of interest in popular culture. Efforts were then made to salvage related buildings, or portions of them, and several current 'museums' now feature items like an original wooden beam from the dungeon in which those accused of witchcraft awaited trial.
There's now a Salem Witch Trials Memorial, and the witch-related activities note that more than two hundred people were accused of witchcraft between February 1692 and May 1693 - with thirty found guilty, twenty executed (nineteen by hanging and one by pressing), while at least five others died in jail - because of people's fear of their neighbours, of anything or anyone who was slightly different.
Wandering through Salem in October, one striking aspect was the number of artistic garden arrangements and landscape design. Businesses and private homes very often beautifully decorated with autumn colours, even those without Halloween decorations per se. It was lovely to see these artistic touches on every block.

I should mention that I'm a big fan of Halloween, as a celebration of the Celtic roots of Samhainn (in Scottish Gaelic); the Celtic new year, when it was believed that the veil between our world and the other would become weaker and allow ancestors - and faeries - to wander among the living.
I grew up listening to my beloved (born-in-Malta) Scottish grandmother's tales of the Highlands, of the Celtic wise-women (ban-fhiosaiche), of how Flora MacDonald helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape the British after the Battle of Culloden (a place I've visited) in 1746, and how some of her female ancestors were considered to have the Second Sight (an da shealladh, a combination of future-seeing and healing).

Back to the arts in Salem, we next visited the Witch Dungeon Museum, where we viewed a short play; a partial reenactment of one of the Witch Trials, using the actual transcript as the script. From there, attendees headed down to visit a reconstruction of the dungeons in which the accused would have awaited their trials. Even without the disease, filth, and odors, it was a sobering experience.

Our next visit was to the much-hyped Salem Witch Museum - for which we'd had to reserve same-day timed tickets online at midnight, as they sell out within minutes. It provides mostly the same information as the Witch Dungeon Museum and the many different tourist pamphlets, using recorded narration as spot-lights show different stage sets vignettes positioned around a large theatre-dark room. Their 'museum', visited only after all visitors were crammed into the tiny gift shop for 10 minutes, contained very little from Salem and mostly generic witch-related objects from elsewhere. It was interesting to see books on witchcraft from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, but they were displayed in a way that made it quite difficult to see them. There was also quite a lot of modern witch-kitsch, including one of the Harry Potter books signed by J.K. Rowling.

After coffee and pumpkin donuts, to wake us up after that experience, we walked to the waterfront Historic Derby Street Neighborhood. With many houses and other buildings dating back to the 1600s and 1700s, this is a wonderful historic site. If you consider Georgian-period architecture to be art, then this is the spot for you.
It's also where we found a shop featuring local artwork with Celtic or witchy themes, away from the crowds. Witch Way Gifts offered a variety of small artworks and artisanal products; handmade candles, carvings, charms, jewelry, wood-board paintings, and more. The nearby Chocolate Pantry was another of our highlights, with a good selection of chocolates "handcrafted to perfection" on site with artistic flair.

From there we walked back towards the more crowded downtown area, skirting it, to arrive at the Salem Witch House. This is the only structure still standing in Salem with direct ties to the 1692 witch trials, and now serves as the unofficial gateway into the McIntire Historic District, with its many Georgian- and Federal-period buildings from the 1700s onward.
More architecture as art, and beautiful autumn garden designs.
We unfortunately didn't have time to visit what's likely the only true museum in Salem, the Peabody Essex Museum which - dating from 1799 - is one of the oldest continuously-operating museums in the United States. Nor did we have time to visit the 1668 The House of the Seven Gables.
Both are on our list for a return trip to Salem, as we're already planning to return to Boston within a few years.
All this to say that there's plenty for an artist to enjoy in Salem, if you can see past the witch-kitsch. Visiting outside of its busiest period of the year, October, would probably help.
On that note, Happy Halloween!