Asculpture garden orsculpture park is an outdoorgarden or park which includes the presentation ofsculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials inlandscaped surroundings.[1]
A sculpture garden may be private, owned by a museum and accessible freely or for a fee, or public and accessible to all. Some cities own large numbers ofpublic sculptures, some of which they may present together in cityparks.
Exhibits range from individual, traditional sculptures to largesite-specificinstallations. Sculpture gardens may also vary greatly in size and scope, either featuring the collected works of multiple artists, or the artwork of a single individual. These installations are related to several similar concepts, most notablyland art, where landscapes become the basis of asite-specific sculpture, andtopiary gardens, which consists of clipping or training live plants into living sculptures. Asculpture trail layout may be adopted, either in a park or through open countryside. TheIrwell Sculpture Trail, the largest public art scheme in England, includes 28 art pieces along a 30-mile (48 km) footpath stretching fromSalford Quays throughBury intoRossendale and up to thePennines aboveBacup.[2]
Sculpture gardens have a long history: the oldest known collection of human constructions is the Neanderthal site insideBruniquel Cave dated to approximately 175,000 years ago. Brokenstalagmites were arranged byNeanderthals in a series of stacked or ring-like structures, and were found in 1990.[3]
Garden statues, often of very high quality, were a feature ofancient Roman gardens, revived at theRenaissance, and then especially a feature of theBaroque garden. Palace gardens, such as theGardens of Versailles, featured a concentration of sculpture equalling that of larger modern sculpture parks.
The oldest public sculpture garden in the US is inBrookgreen Gardens in South Carolina.[4] The property was opened in 1932, and is on theNational Register of Historic Places.[5]
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