Calder Gardens Opens in Philadelphia: A Living Tribute to Alexander Calder

01 October 2025

The Calder Gardens, a landmark new cultural destination dedicated to Alexander Calder (1898–1976), has officially open to the public as of the 21 September 2025, the site transforms Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway into a space where art, architecture, and landscape converge.

The site brings together three creative forces: Calder’s revolutionary art, the landscapes of Piet Oudolf, and the architecture of Herzog & de Meuron. The building’s curved metal façade and warm wooden details open onto meadows and gardens featuring more than 250 plant varieties, designed to evolve with the seasons and echo Calder’s fascination with movement and change.

Inside, a rotating selection of Calder’s mobiles, stabiles, paintings, and drawings is exhibited. The inaugural installation includes rarely seen works such as Black Widow (1948), on view in the United States for the first time, and the monumental Jerusalem Stabile II (1976). Outdoors, visitors are greeted by The Cock’s Comb (1960), setting the stage for the journey within. In keeping with Calder’s spirit, works are displayed without explanatory labels, inviting each visitor to interpret them personally and directly. This first installation also contains Calder’s artist ancestors, including works by Calder’s mother, painter Nanette Lederer Calder; his father, sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder; and his grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder. Each of these artists spent meaningful parts of their lives in Philadelphia.

Calder Gardens is more than a museum, as its programming will include performances, sound experiences, readings, screenings, and horticultural events, ensuring the space continues to evolve in dialogue with Calder’s legacy of experimentation.

As Alexander S. C. Rower, President of the Calder Foundation and grandson of the artist, notes: “Calder Gardens does not so much present a story as it offers an opportunity to activate a challenging notion: that art can be experienced in a perpetual present. This is a site for reflection, introspection, and discovery.”

Calder Gardens was made possible through a collaboration between the Calder Foundation and the Barnes Foundation, supported by the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and numerous partners.