The Walls Have Ears

One of the season’s must-see exhibits is actually a must-hear. Running through Sept. 5, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Listen Hear: The Art of Sound is bringing audio installations from 12 artists to two outdoor public spaces—the Ruggles MBTA station and the Back Bay Fens—as well as to select spaces within the museum itself, including the three rooms below.

The Courtyard is already a verdant oasis; Taiwanese artist Lee Mingwei’s installation Small Conversation will heighten the natural wonder with his soundscape of insect and amphibian night calls—not made by actual critters, but produced with the artist’s own voice.

In the Dutch Room, the frame that held Vermeer’s The Concert has stood empty since the museum’s infamous 1990 heist. German sound artist and filmmaker Moritz Fehr will evoke the stolen work with his installation Undertone, returning the singer, lute player and harpsichordist to their rightful spot through sound.

Photo by Living Architecture Systems Group, Philip Beesley

The Fenway Gallery is hosting British artist and architect Philip Beesley’s Sentient Veil, a sensor-equipped sculpture with clusters of glass capsules that offers a choir of sounds in response to museum-goers’ movements.

THE IMPROPER’S 2017 SPRING ARTS PREVIEW: COMEDY | THEATER | MUSIC | DANCE | FILM