In 1997, Cynthia and Evgeny Nikitin bought a weekend house in Boiceville with vast gardens that they could tend to in their time away from their Hoboken, New Jersey, home. Evgeny is an artist, designer, and church and theater restorer, and Cynthia has a public arts background, so when they stumbled upon the property with its numerous handmade sculptures, they felt they had lucked out. Now, more than 20 years later, the Brunel Sculpture Park is an idyllic, hidden sanctuary of art, history, nature, and wildlife in the Catskills.
Before the Nikitins came to own the property, it had been home to Frenchman Emile Brunel, a photographer, sculptor, and real estate developer. Brunel’s rich history started with a trip to America in 1904, where he found his passion in photographing Native American lifestyle. After revolutionizing the film industry by sharing his formula for one-hour photo processing, he purchased the Brown Hotel in the Catskills, turning it into Le Chalet Indien, now the site of the Brunel Sculpture Park. Over a period of 20 years, Brunel hand-carved all 14 sculptures on the property with the intention of honoring the Native American culture that he had come to love.
Since the sculpture park’s grand opening in August of 2019, when the Nikitins decided to open their four-acre property to the Town of Olive, they have been working to preserve the historic roots of the property. They’ve also worked to get the property listed on the New York State and National Registries of Historic sites in 1999 and they became certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Wildlife Habitat Garden this past year. Of the 14 sculptures onsite, 12 are free standing, and most employ figurative or animal themes. “Brunel meant for this to be a tribute to Native American people and traditions,” Cynthia says. “We are not Native ourselves, but we want to be a place for Native people to celebrate cultures, tradition, and to pass that on to educate the current community for generations.”
The sprawling gardens are well-kept across three seasons. The Nikitins have cultivated native plants intended for their original purposes: medicine, food, and ceremonial elements, not to mention their function as food and habitat for wildlife and their visual beauty. When they first acquired the property, Cynthia described it as unkempt and relatively empty. “It was clear that it hadn’t been taken care of in years, so we added to the minimal vegetation structure,” she says of their efforts to create the well-manicured gardens that now make up the land.
In addition to the sculptures and gardens, the Brunel Sculpture Park hosts a number of events and outreach programs, all through their nonprofit organization The Friends of Brunel Park, which they established in 2019 alongside the public inauguration of the park. They work with local Girl Scouts, Adopt-A-Highway Programs, and the nearby Onteora High School to share their tranquil lands and salient history with community members.
They also have an Artist in Residency Program, which allows creators that actively use nature in their art the opportunity to show off their pieces and host events on the property. This summer, BIPOC Artist in Residence Von Hyin Kolk will be displaying her work from August 7 to 14 at the sculpture park. Kolk’s paintings “address the tensions and idiosyncrasies of her multi-cultural existence.” Kolk was chosen by the Nikitins for her use of natural elements in her paintings and engaging works.
The park is normally open daily, 12pm to 5pm, for self-guided tours. However, as of June 5, the park will only be open on weekends due to restoration work. They will be restoring four totems, with the Brunel Totem being last. The Brunel Totem is a visitor (and owner) favorite; this structure is a glimpse into Brunel’s family tree, with a picturesque backdrop of the Ashokan Valley, creating “a gateway to the Catskills,” as described by co-owner Cynthia.
“We like to say we’re on the main drag but off the beaten path,” says Cynthia. The Nikitins know that their sanctuary is a hidden gem. “We provide an opportunity for people to discover something that they glimpsed out of the corner of their eyes going 55 miles per hour, so there’s this sort of unraveling discovery to find here,” she adds. But they do hope that those who find them feel the amazement of the property and history. They often marvel at “the abilities of one small Frenchman to craft these concrete monuments for his own amusement,” given the size of the undertaking, and they hope to share that with patrons as well.
