Calder Gardens Will Open to the Public On Sunday, September 21

PHILADELPHIA, PA, September 15, 2025—Calder Gardens, a new cultural destination dedicated to the art of Alexander Calder, will open to the public on September 21, 2025. Located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 21st and 22nd Streets, the 1.8-acre site was designed to immerse visitors in a space that catalyzes reflection and renewal, highlighting the interplay between art, architecture, and landscape—an open invitation to interpretation and discovery.

Calder Gardens’ milestone opening moment will be preceded on Saturday, September 20, by Chaos and Kisses, a free public parade conceived by acclaimed artist, composer, and musician Arto Lindsay and organized by Juana Berrío, Marsha Perelman Senior Director of Programs at Calder Gardens.

Calder Gardens is a unique collaboration between the Calder Foundation, which is providing the curatorial vision, and the Barnes Foundation, which is providing administrative and operational support through an innovative resource-sharing model. The site’s gardens and meadows, featuring native and perennial species, were created by renowned Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf. The building—a gently curved structure with a softly shimmering metal-clad north facade and an understated wood south facade reminiscent of Calder’s own bohemian home in Connecticut—was designed by Pritzker Prize–winning firm Herzog & de Meuron. In this setting where architecture and nature commune, visitors will find a wide range of works by Calder both inside and outside. The artworks on display will change over time and include rarely seen masterpieces, some on public view for the first time.

Beginning on Sunday, September 21, Calder Gardens will be open to the public Wednesday–Monday from 11 am to 5 pm. Memberships and tickets are now available at caldergardens.org. Memberships start at $98 annually, providing benefits such as unlimited free admission to Calder Gardens and the Barnes Foundation, exclusive morning access from 10 am to 11 am, guest passes, and discounts at the Calder Gardens Shop. General admission tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, $5 for college students (with valid ID) and youth (13–18), and free for children 12 and under.

Calder Gardens has received a broad range of generous support and significant underwriting from many dedicated individuals, foundations, and corporations, as well as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia.

“Calder Gardens is an extraordinary space, and in joining the other cultural treasures along the Parkway—including the Barnes, the Rodin Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art—it will further solidify Philadelphia’s position as one of the world’s most exciting cities in which to experience, and be transformed by, art,” says Marsha Perelman, President of the Trustees of Calder Gardens.

In a departure from the traditional museum approach, wherein didactic information is presented alongside works on view, Calder’s mobiles, stabiles, paintings, and drawings will be presented without labels that provide titles, dates, and texts explaining how best to understand and interpret them. By allowing the artworks to speak for themselves, Calder Gardens proposes an open-ended experience that encourages visitors to take their time and react to Calder’s art in their own way and at their own pace.

“On the surface, my grandfather pushed beyond established norms by collapsing mass and setting sculpture in motion,” says Alexander S. C. Rower, President of the Calder Foundation and grandson of the artist. “But on a deeper level, he explored how art can be experienced in a perpetual present––one that is always unfolding. Calder Gardens does not so much present a story as it offers an opportunity to activate this challenging notion. The architecture and gardens invite us to direct our own journey, to interpret what we see in a uniquely personal way, to use our hearts more than our heads. This is a site for reflection, introspection, and discovery.”

“Calder Gardens is a vision born from passion, persistence, and the belief that Philadelphia deserves this cultural treasure,” says Joe Neubauer, founding board member of the Trustees of Calder Gardens and one of Calder Gardens’ greatest supporters. “In a time of global uncertainty, we came together to create a place where art and nature offer healing, inspiration, and connection—brought to life by three world-class artists: Alexander Calder, Herzog & de Meuron, and Piet Oudolf. I’m deeply proud to have helped bring this to our city for generations to come.”

“The addition of Calder Gardens to the landscape of cultural institutions in Philadelphia is incredibly valuable, and we are delighted to be opening the doors to our community and beyond,” says Thom Collins, Neubauer Family Executive Director and President of the Barnes Foundation. “A key element of the Barnes’s educational mission is to promote the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture—while Dr. Barnes’s passion was art, his wife Laura’s was horticulture—and we view our role as operational partner of Calder Gardens as a natural extension of this important aspect of our history.”

“In this unique commission in Philadelphia—from the site, to the open brief, to our design process—I focused on space over form, leading me to explore below-grade areas and discover the defining spaces of the structure,” says Jacques Herzog. “Calder Gardens embodies a kind of ‘no-design’ architecture, allowing the works of art to express their diversity and ambiguity across numerous different spatial contexts. It’s a place where you can sit, wander, and observe, whether it’s nature or art, with the ease one has when one sits under a tree.”

“While I have admired Alexander Calder for decades, I never imagined receiving such a remarkable opportunity to engage his work directly,” says Piet Oudolf. “At Calder Gardens, I have designed a landscape that responds not only to the specific conditions of the site but to Calder’s powerful embrace of movement and change as defining elements of his art. Here in Philadelphia, Calder’s sculptures will be placed in dialogue with gardens that are constantly evolving. Those artworks and the plants I have selected and placed, will be moving in time at different speeds, in relationship to one another and the seasons, for many years to come. I look forward to watching this unfold.”

About Programming at Calder Gardens
A slate of ongoing and recurring programs designed to extend Calder’s spirit of experimentation and collaboration will activate Calder Gardens year-round. Offering experiences that are as dynamic and multifaceted as the artist’s work, these programs invite artists, cultural producers, and audiences to encounter Calder Gardens not as a static place, but as a living space for exchange, reflection, and transformation. Programs will include commissioned self-guided audio walks by noted cultural figures, sound- and movement-based performances, listening sessions, film screenings and readings, community-centered events, and horticulture-focused initiatives. All programming is conceived to elevate the mind, body, and spirit, making Calder Gardens a place of both cultural enrichment and personal renewal.

About Chaos and Kisses: A Grand Opening Parade for Calder Gardens
Saturday, September 20, Noon–2 pm
Originating at LOVE Park and concluding in Maja Park near Calder Gardens, Chaos and Kisses is a free public parade commissioned by Calder Gardens and conceived by acclaimed artist, composer, and musician Arto Lindsay. Guided by Lindsay’s conceptual framework, the parade will feature a dynamic ensemble of Philadelphia-based artists and performers—including Pig Iron Theatre, Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, Mad Beatz Philly with youth drumlines, and Brazilian percussion ensemble PHonk!. A free concert at 1 pm by the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra will cap off the event in Maja Park.

“We are thrilled to celebrate the opening of Calder Gardens with Chaos and Kisses, a parade that acknowledges the Calder family’s history in Philadelphia while celebrating the city’s thriving cultural ecosystem,” says Berrío. “It is a gift to the public that embodies the values of collaboration, experimentation, and the ever-changing cycles of life that were central in Calder’s own work and that will guide Calder Gardens’ programming.”

About Calder Gardens
Calder Gardens is a new art institution dedicated to Alexander Calder (1898–1976), one of the most acclaimed and influential artists of the 20th century. Building on the artist’s enduring legacy, it is conceived as a place where an evolving interplay between art, architecture, nature, and programming encourages contemplation and self-discovery.

Set within a landscape featuring more than 250 varieties of plants in gardens conceived by Piet Oudolf, Calder Gardens’ 18,000 square-foot building designed by Herzog & de Meuron houses a rotating installation of artworks by Calder. Spanning the artist’s fifty-year career and diverse bodies of work, the objects on view respond to architectural moments rather than art historical narratives. This selection of artworks slowly changes over time, echoing the natural rhythms of the seasons. Some will remain for years, while others are only on view for a few months, creating an ever-changing environment that encourages close looking and repeat visits.

In dialogue with Calder’s own experimental practice, programming at Calder Gardens presents performances, sonic experiences, screenings, lectures, and other events that connect the artist's legacy of innovation to contemporary art. Emphasizing mindfulness and environmental awareness, Calder Gardens is a space that foregrounds the interconnectedness of all elements of life.

Calder Gardens is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in the heart of Philadelphia, a city with deep connections to the Calder family across several generations. It extends this lineage to the present day and joins Philadelphia’s rich artistic and cultural communities.

Calder Gardens has been realized thanks to Philadelphia philanthropists working with the Calder Foundation, with significant support from the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Through an innovative collaboration, the Barnes Foundation provides administrative, operational, and educational programming support for Calder Gardens. The Trustees of Calder Gardens is a section 509(a)(3) supporting organization that provides strategic and artistic direction, as well as financial support, to sustain the vision for Calder Gardens.

To learn more, visit www.caldergardens.org, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram @caldergardens.

Land Acknowledgment
Calder Gardens is located in Lenapehoking, on the unceded land, waters, and air of the Lenape Peoples. We honor that this land and its people are timeless, and we pay respect to their Elders—past, present, and future. We support the sovereignty of the Lenape Peoples and are committed to uplifting their autonomy and rights in their homelands. This commitment exemplifies a reciprocal relationship to all beings and elements, recognizing that we are not separate from Earth.

About Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder (b. 1898, Philadelphia–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.

Image captions: First and second photos: Calder Gardens, 2025. Photograph by Iwan Baan. Artwork by Alexander Calder © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Third photo: Calder in his Roxbury studio, 1941. Photograph by Herbert Matter © Calder Foundation, New York. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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