September 16, 2025
Aidan Gallo/for PhillyVoice
Calder Gardens opens Sunday on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, showcasing work by Philadelphia-born sculptor Alexander 'Sandy' Calder in a $90 million cultural destination.
Calder Gardens hasn't even opened its doors yet, but the art institute is already promising big changes.
The new cultural destination, opening Sunday on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, showcases the work of Alexander "Sandy" Calder. The Philadelphia-born artist created enormous abstract sculptures that sway in the breeze and cast unusual, evolving shadows throughout the day. They defy stasis, and so, too, will the space that now houses them.
Calder Gardens will start with about three dozen pieces but rotate out the items on display, borrowing from museums around the world and tapping the collection at the Calder Foundation, a nonprofit run by the artist's family. The 37,000 perennial plants outside, selected by Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, will also shift with the season. Even the new steel and concrete building offers dramatically different experiences across rooms.
Visitors step inside the main entrance at 2100 Benjamin Franklin Parkway and will find a small lobby in light shades of wood. But as they walk down the stairs to the main gallery space, they're plunged into darkness. A single wire sculpture, visible from a window cut into the rough concrete walls, adds to the cave-like ambience.
The large, open space at the bottom, however, is bathed in natural light. Visitors can walk around 14-foot-long metal pieces anchored to the ground, or gaze up at colorful mobiles hanging from the ceilings. A select few sculptures are outside, visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows and accessible through heavy double doors. Some of the Calder originals here, such as the 1948 sculpture "Black Widow," have never been displayed publicly in the United States.
Alexander 'Sandy' Calder's enormous abstract sculptures cast unusual, evolving shadows as the natural light pouring into the museum changes throughout the day.
A small purple space pays tribute to Calder's roots in Philadelphia. The sculptor was, famously, not the first of his family to pursue art. His father Alexander Stirling Calder created the Swann Memorial Fountain in Logan Square, while his grandfather Alexander Milne Calder created the William Penn statue atop City Hall. A bronze miniature of the Penn sculpture is displayed in the purple corner, next to a bust by Stirling Calder. Portraits by Nanette Lederer Calder, the artist's mother, hang behind them.
The $90 million space is a collaboration between the Calder Foundation and the Barnes Foundation, which, like Calder Gardens, eschews the traditional museum label. Alexander S.C. Rower, the sculptor's grandson, has called it "a site for reflection, introspection and discovery."
"My grandfather made art that he wasn't trying to predetermine your experience," Rower said at a news conference Monday. "He wasn't trying to tell you how he felt or how you should feel. Or even tell you a story. ... Our experiment here is to present, in a totally different way, Calder's work, where you are allowed to have your own unfolded experience."
The sign outside the new Calder Gardens on the Ben Franklin Parkway.
The lack of plaques or information is part of that experiment. Visitors encounter the art without context, much like at the Barnes Foundation building across the street. Calder Gardens program director Juana Berrio is developing audio guides to accompany the works, but they will play a curated piece of music or poem rather than rattle off dates.
"They're going to take us elsewhere," she explained. "The invitation is to notice where you are, and then see where we can go together."
Calder Gardens sits on 1.8 acres of land that abuts the parkway and Interstate 676. To minimize the sounds of traffic, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron designed a tapered metal wall that frames the garden. They also placed the primary gallery space underground to mitigate the urban heat island effect and foster natural cooling.
The site's transformation from, as president of trustees Marsha Perelman put it, "dirt and weeds, an occasional semi abandoned PennDOT trailer and, not that infrequently, porta-potties for events on the parkway," has been a long time coming. The basic idea has been batted around for decades, and formal plans were initially announced in February 2020. They paused amid the COVID-19 pandemic but resumed in 2022. Calder Gardens announced its official opening date earlier this spring.
Calder Gardens program director Juana Berrio, center, cuts the ribbon on Monday at the new museum on the parkway.
The museum is the first new arts destination along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in over a decade.
"Philly is a world-class city, a world-class art city," Gov. Josh Shapiro said at the conference. "And we are proud that Calder Gardens is a world-class addition to this great parkway."
The grand opening festivities kick off with a public parade along the parkway Saturday. The procession will depart from LOVE Park at noon, pass the Swann Memorial Fountain and Calder Gardens, and arrive at Maja Park by 1 p.m. Audiences there can catch free performances by the Sun Ra Arkestra, Pig Iron Theatre, Mad Beatz Philly, Almanac Dance Circus Theatre and PHonk! Calder Gardens will welcome its first visitors the following day starting at 11 a.m.
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