The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) has announced that its outdoor sculpture gardens will reopen to visitors at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 24, weather permitting. The two landscaped gardens feature 33 masterworks of modern and contemporary sculpture—from Auguste Rodin’s striding bronze Balzac (1892) to Ellsworth Kelly’s stainless steel arc Untitled (1986). Admission to the gardens is free.
The BMA’s sculpture gardens have been closed since March 16. Capacity for the sculpture garden will be limited to 77 people to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Visitors are encouraged to wear masks and maintain a six-foot social distance from others in the gardens and groups are limited to five people or less.
The sculpture gardens are open Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 AM to 5PM, weather permitting, and are located at 10 Art Museum Drive, near North Charles and 31st streets. More information is available here.
The museum building and Gertrude’s Chesapeake Kitchen restaurant are not open at this time.
ABOUT THE GARDENS
Janet and Alan Wurtzburger Sculpture Garden
This 17,000-foot upper garden was designed by George E. Patton and opened in 1980. It features 19 early modernist works by artists such as Alexander Calder, Jacques Lipchitz, Isamu Noguchi, and Auguste Rodin amidst a lovely flagstone terrace and fountain. Highlights include:
· Emile-Antoine Bourdelle’s figural Fruit (1911)
· Henry Moore’s boulder-size, abstract Three-Piece Reclining Figure No. 1 (1961–1962)
· Max Bill’s granite interpretation of the Möbius strip, Endless Ribbon (1953)
Ryda and Robert H. Levi Sculpture Garden
This adjoining two-acre lower garden was designed by Sasaki Associates and opened in 1988. Its sloping garden paths and lush foliage surround 14 late 20th-century artworks by artists such as Anthony Caro, Joan Miró, Louise Nevelson, and Tony Smith. Highlights include:
· Alexander Calder’s soaring red 100 Yard Dash (1969)
· José Ruiz de Rivera’s slowly revolving Construction 140 (1971)
· Michael Heizer’s granite fragments of a deconstructed circle, Eight-Part Circle (1976/1987)
More information about the sculpture gardens is available here.