Well Worth a Trip to NJ

Yesterday, my final full day with Daryl before (sniff, sniff) dropping him off at the Philly airport this afternoon, we decided to explore a landmark we've wanted to visit for months: Grounds for Sculpture. It was awesome. As Daryl said several times, "Why didn't we do this sooner?"

Grounds for Sculpture is located about 10 minutes from Princeton in the industrial part of Hamilton, NJ. It's $8 for students, $10 for adults, and it's an enormous 35-acre landscaped park full of sculptures. It's so cleverly laid out that you'll often be confronted with an enormous work of art when you climb over a hill or turn around.

There's a warming hut, a gazebo, a Wind in the Willows themed restaurant (with dinners starting at $35 we contentedly ate fruit snacks while checking it out from the bridge), and over 200 sculptures of all types, shapes, and sizes.

 

Some of the sculptures are modeled after impressionist paintings. Recognize the one above, with the red poppies?

 

This one made me walk around quoting lines from "So I Married an Axe Murderer" in a faux-Scottish accent, much to Daryl's annoyance.

"HEAD! Pants, NOW!"

"Honestly, that kid's head is like Sputnik! It's round, but quite pointed in places!"

There are also several indoor galleries that have rotating exhibits. For the next month they have these beautiful and intricate metal sculptures by Albert Paley, who I had never heard of before, but now love.

Daryl always hits on the 19th century women... I think it's the hats that really draw him in...

An 8-foot tall King Lear. It was windy and gusty all day, so I loved how this giant metal man actually looked like he was reacting to the elements.

I especially appreciated the fact that the whole place seemed to have a sense of humor. I love art, but the snobby parts of art culture get old pretty quickly. This place was the anti-snob version of every nose-in-the-air art museum I've been to (except for the ridiculous Princeton-esque father dragging around his four kids and making comments like, "Now you see the angle on this one signifies that the artist was commenting on the idea of light. It is meant to be viewed from this angle, here." The kids looked like they wanted to kill themselves).

But aside from the odd stage-father, it's a great place to enjoy art, enjoy nature, and just play. It's fun to see the sculptures change as the daylight does. There are no guards or ropes or security cameras. Just hundreds of sculptures spread out among trees and flowers and ponds. You're allowed to climb on many of the sculptures, for crying out loud. You don't have to stay on the trails. Any little alley that looks fun is open for exploration. And they seem to have thought of everything. It's open year-round, which seemed odd, as it gets pretty cold and snowy here by February or so. But by the time Daryl and I were getting chilly (he packed to come out so quickly that he only had a hoodie to keep him warm!) we stumbled upon a warming hut with a big fire place. Can't beat that.

Well worth a visit.