This month, Philadelphia welcomes a revolutionary new cultural destination. Opening Sept. 21 in the heart of the city’s museum district on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Calder Gardens is a celebration of the work of renowned artist Alexander Calder.
This new destination adds to a remarkable artistic legacy along the Parkway, where three generations of the Calder family have left their mark. At the eastern end, a 37-foot bronze sculpture of William Penn crowns City Hall, created by Alexander Milne Calder. About half a mile west, the Swann Memorial Fountain in Logan Circle springs from the vision of his son, Alexander Stirling Calder. And nearby, the artist at the heart of the new Calder Gardens, Alexander “Sandy” Calder’s delicate white mobile “The Ghost” hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The 1.8-acre site is a collaboration between the Calder Foundation and the Barnes Foundation, a world-renowned museum and educational institution also located on the Parkway, which will handle day-to-day operations. The project blends architecture, landscape design, and art with a striking building by Pritzker Prize-winning firm Herzog & de Meuron, “living sculpture” gardens by Piet Oudolf, the Dutch landscape designer behind New York’s High Line, and a trove of Calder’s work—including seldom-seen pieces, several debuting publicly—that will frequently rotate.
“Nothing is permanent,” Alexander S. C. Rower, president of the Calder Foundation and the artist’s grandson, tells Travel + Leisure.
Works on loan from the Calder Foundation and museums worldwide will continuously change, ensuring visitors encounter new combinations of the artist’s kinetic mobiles, monumental steel “stabiles,” and lesser-known drawings and paintings with each visit.
The inaugural exhibition features rarely-displayed works, like two sculptures crafted from hardwood during World War II when Calder’s hallmark sheet metal was rationed. There’s also what Rower calls “an altar to Calder’s ancestors,” honoring the artistic dynasty that has helped to shape Philly’s cultural landscape for over a century, with works by Calder’s father, mother, and grandfather—including a scaled-down version of that William Penn sculpture.
One thing visitors won’t find in Calder Gardens: traditional wall labels with titles, dates, or descriptions of the works. The intentional absence encourages personal interpretation and direct emotional connection. “I want people to just come in and be present,” Rower says.
The building and grounds support this philosophy. Rather than creating galleries for art, architect Jacques Herzog designed spaces specifically for Calder’s work—a concept Rower calls unprecedented. Inside the wood and metal-clad building, voluminous spaces bathed in natural light perfectly showcase each piece. Outside, Oudolf’s gardens mix 250-plus kinds of mostly native perennials, designed to shift with the seasons.
Calder Gardens will host year-round programs, from performances to screenings and community gatherings. Gallery admission costs $18 for adults (with reduced rates for seniors, students, and youth), but visitors don’t need a ticket to sit on a shaded bench in the garden amid the outdoor sculptures and ever-changing landscape and just soak up the art.
“For decades, people have gotten in the way of what Calder is expressing,” Rower says. “He hasn’t planned an outcome, he’s just giving you the cards and saying, ‘Make of it what you will, and and don’t let somebody else tell you what you’re seeing, what you’re feeling, what you’re experiencing.’”
