Calder Gardens opens this weekend in Philadelphia – The Art Newspaper

“Did you walk by the grass that smells like burnt popcorn at the entrance?” This unusual question appears on the welcome brochure of the new Calder Gardens in Philadelphia, opening this weekend on Benjamin Franklin Parkway across from the Rodin Museum. But at the official ribbon-cutting ceremony on 15 September, the more identifiable smell on the path towards the front door of the art space—do not call it a museum!—was that of coriander.

“I was walking through the gardens the other day, and it smelled like brown butter,” Alexander S. C. Rower, the president of the Calder Foundation and a grandson of the artist, tells The Art Newspaper. “The smells of the garden are intended as part of the experience.”

Pleasant odours do not end at the front door either. Inside the gallery spaces, there is a noticeable scent of fresh wood. “It’s a multi-sensory experience,” says Jason Frantzen, a senior partner of the architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, which designed the building. “The wood smell has an association with home; there’s a domestic feel.” He notes that there is an inviting texture to both the wooden and concrete surfaces inside. “The way the concrete is treated has its own feel and also a smell. There’s a haptic quality to the project that goes from smooth to rough,” he says. “And in the garden, there’s the softness of the soil.”

It is this kind attention to the sensorial experience that makes Calder Gardens such a unique project—and part of the reason its creators reject the term “museum”. Rower says that he did not want to make a “mausoleum”, which he feels a lot of museums dedicated to a single artist turn into. Instead, he imagined a uniquely contemplative space—one that does not dictate how people experience it. To that end, there are no wall labels explaining the art; the welcome brochure points to Calder Gardens’ website for any information about the artist and his work. (A planned audio guide will not give any historical information either, but instead include commissions from musicians, poets and others responding to the space and the art inside.)

The whole project has the air of an understated cathedral, with its expansive gardens filled with native plants (designed by Piet Oudolf, of High Line fame); a dark, narrow stairway leading to a vast sunlit space; small, chapel-like galleries often containing a single, dramatically lit sculpture; and unmarked doors opening to unexpected interior gardens. There is even an altar in one corner dedicated to works by Calder’s grandfather, father and mother—all beloved artists in their own right.

Unlike many cathedrals, though, the structure is barely visible from the street; most of it is underground, mysterious and cavelike. “The building was dug into the ground, because we didn’t want another monument on the parkway, but something more modest in terms of scale—with a series of spaces that can be discovered,” Frantzen says. “Everything is kind of a surprise. You don’t see what’s beyond it until you get to the bottom of the steps, and there’s a constant movement as people pass through the space.”

This sense of motion is something that the Philadelphia-born Calder would have appreciated as the inventor of the mobile. And like his famed sculptures that morph slowly over time, Calder Gardens is a dynamic space where the 50 years of mobiles, stabiles, paintings and drawings on view change periodically—but without a set schedule. Some works will remain in place for years while others inevitably travel to exhibitions around the world.

“But we will also rotate works within the building, showing them in different environments. We don’t want to be static,” says Rower, clarifying that this rotation is not a reverence to the art itself but rather “for visitors’ real-time experience. It’s about slowing down.” Rower, a daily meditator himself, hopes that people will go so far as to leave their phones in the cubbies by the front desk.

Speaking a common language

Like a cathedral, Calder Gardens is a place for both quiet contemplation and community gathering. The outdoor space is free and open to the public during the day; and there are plans for the 18,000 sq. ft of indoor space to host events like dance performances, film screenings and readings throughout the year. “We want engagement that’s actually engaging the community,” Rower says.

At the ribbon-cutting earlier this week, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called Calder Gardens “a destination” encapsulating “the value of art, history and community”. He added that the state was “proud to invest $20m” into the $70m project, one that could bring people together during an “extremely divisive time” in the US. “To me, there are still just a few things out there that allow us to speak a common language,” said Shapiro, citing sports, food and art as examples. “We now have an opportunity through the arts to bring more people together.”

Flanked by a busy parkway and a highway, Calder Gardens is surprisingly serene. “The whole idea is getting people away from the city,” Frantzen says, “and creating a space where people don’t hear the highway—the back wall extends across the green and makes a sound barrier.” Of course the gardens, packed with more than 250 different varieties for a total of 37,000 plants across almost two acres, also play a part.

Rower remembers Oudolf personally organising individual plants in the garden before they were planted. Even though the layout had already been decided and the potted plants laid out according to Oudolf’s exacting plan, “he turned and moved every single pot”, Rower says, “sculpting in real time”. More than anything else at Calder Gardens, the flora morphing and changing with the seasons will manifest the new institution’s embrace of change over time.

A celebration of the opening of Calder Gardens will take place on Saturday (20 September), with a free public parade along Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Titled Chaos and Kisses and led by the artist and musician Arto Lindsay, the parade—or “happening”, as Rower prefers to call it—will feature performances by a number of local artists and groups, culminating in a concert by the Sun Ra Arkestra. Calder Gardens will officially open to the public the following day (21 September)—the day of the new moon, according to its welcome brochure.

• Chaos and Kisses: A Grand Opening Parade for Calder Gardens will begin at noon on 20 September at Love Park, Philadelphia. Calder Gardens, located at 2100 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, will open to the public on 21 September at 11am.