Calder Gardens Announces Public Opening Date, Unveils a New Website, and Launches Memberships and Tickets

PHILADELPHIA, PA, May 20, 2025—Calder Gardens announced today that it will open to the public on September 21, 2025, following a celebratory week of special events.

In conjunction with the announcement, the institution has unveiled its new visual identity and website—caldergardens.org. This marks another step toward the inauguration of the widely anticipated cultural destination dedicated to cultivating reflection, curiosity, and human connection through the art of Alexander Calder, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and a native Philadelphian.

With the launch of the new Calder Gardens website today, members of the public are now able to purchase memberships online—offering the benefit of reserving advance tickets—and subscribe to a mailing list for exclusive updates, event invitations, and special offers.

Designed by Karlssonwilker, the new Calder Gardens logomark was rendered to emphasize the negative space between the two words in the institution’s name. The void suggests the vigor and tension of Calder’s art as well as a sense of welcome, telegraphing Calder Gardens’ mission to be a living, breathing space where art and environment are open to interpretation.

As an extension of this approach, the website has been conceived to present the institution’s unique proposition as a multilayered cultural space that visitors will experience in many ways. Featuring a simple but bold visual navigation, the site is immersive as well as informative. It will grow and evolve over time, like Calder Gardens itself, to include content that spotlights upcoming activities and programs.

Calder Gardens memberships start at $98 annually, offering unlimited free admission to both Calder Gardens and its operational partner, the Barnes Foundation, exclusive morning access for members, guest passes, discounts at the shop, and more. Tickets will go on sale to members at 10am on May 20. An initial batch of general admission tickets will be released on May 23, and further tickets will be released at a later date.

Calder Gardens ticket prices will be $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, $5 for youth (13–18), and free for children 12 and under. Mailing list subscribers will receive priority access to ticketed events, behind-the-scenes content, and the latest news as Calder Gardens approaches its highly anticipated opening.

About Calder Gardens
Centering Calder’s passion for experimentation, interdisciplinary collaborations, cross-media practices, real-time experience, and embrace of impermanence, Calder Gardens will be a place for art, culture, environmental awareness, and introspection. Its site, featuring a building designed by Pritzker Prize–winning design practice Herzog & de Meuron and landscape of native and flowering species designed by Piet Oudolf, will present a rotating selection of masterworks curated by the Calder Foundation, New York.

An active series of ongoing and recurring programs will make Calder Gardens an ever-evolving ecosystem of ideas, sounds, stories, and communities. Including concerts, lectures, screenings, performances, readings, mindfulness practices, and other wide-ranging activities, this slate will encourage elevating experiences for mind, body, and spirit.

Philadelphia philanthropists working in collaboration with the Calder Foundation founded a 501(c)3 nonprofit supporting organization to launch Calder Gardens, with significant support from the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Through an innovative collaboration, the Barnes Foundation will provide administrative, operational, and educational programming support to Calder Gardens in what constitutes a new model for institutional sustainability and efficiency.

About Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder (b. 1898, Lawnton, Pennsylvania–d. 1976, New York City), whose illustrious career spanned much of the 20th century, is the most acclaimed and influential sculptor of our time. Born into a family of celebrated though more classically trained artists, Calder utilized his innovative genius to profoundly change the course of modern art. He began in the 1920s by developing a new method of sculpting: by bending and twisting wire, he essentially “drew” three-dimensional figures in space. He is renowned for the invention of the mobile, whose suspended, abstract elements move and balance in changing harmony. From the 1950s onward, Calder increasingly devoted himself to making outdoor sculpture on a grand scale from bolted steel plate. Today, these stately titans grace public plazas in cities throughout the world.

About Karlssonwilker
Acclaimed for its unconventional designs for cultural and commercial clients, Karlssonwilker was founded in 2000 by Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker, and joined by partner Vera Yuan in 2020.

With a focus on discovery and an intuitive sense of place, narrative, and humor, Karlssonwilker brings new energy and purpose to their projects, creating engaging experiences in complex cultural environments. The studio’s portfolio continues to cross a wide range of disciplines, clients, and media—unified by a distinct human approach and evolving design language. Notable works include an automated Real-Time Recording Machine for the arts organization Creative Time, and the rebranding of the Reykjavik Art Museum—projects that have earned a place in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and Taschen’s The History of Graphic Design Vol. 2, respectively. Additionally, Karlssonwilker’s work for the Museum of the Moving Image won an Award for Excellence in Design by the New York City Design Commission for outstanding public projects.

Hi-res media image can be found via this link.

For additional information, please contact:
McKenna Young, Brian Communications
myoung@briancom.com / 484.385.2913

Andrea Schwan, Andrea Schwan Inc.
andrea@andreaschwan.com / 917.371.5023

Deirdre Maher, The Barnes Foundation
dmaher@barnesfoundation.org / 215.278.7162