Besthoff Sculpture Garden expansion includes 27 new works of art

Now open after more than 17 months of construction, the expansion of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art features 27 new works by artists working primarily in the 21st century. The expansion, which broke ground in December 2017, builds on the success of the museum’s existing five-acre Besthoff Sculpture Garden, widely regarded as one of the top sculpture gardens in the world. The expansion brings the total site to eleven acres featuring more than 90 works by renowned artists from the 19th century to the present.

Artists featured in the expansion include Larry Bell, Tony Cragg, Johan Creten, Katharina Fritsch, Frank Gehry, Jeppe Hein, Georg Herold, Thomas Houseago, Shirazeh Houshiary, Baltasar Lobo, Robert Longo, Gerold Miller, Beverly Pepper, Pedro Reyes, George Rickey, Ursula van Rydingsvard, Sean Scully, Yinka Shonibare, Frank Stella, Hank Willis Thomas, Bernar Venet, and Fred Wilson. Three works were commissioned for the site: a 60-foot-long mosaic wall by artist Teresita Fernández, a glass bridge by Elyn Zimmerman, and an installation by Maya Lin inside the Sculpture Pavilion.

“The Besthoff Sculpture Garden expansion celebrates NOMA’s primary mission of sharing significant art and artists with the broadest possible public. It also incorporates contemporary, innovative approaches for a healthy and sustainable environment into a compelling experience of art,” said Susan Taylor, Montine McDaniel Freeman Director. “We look forward to sharing with our public new work by some of the most interesting and important artists working today.”

The Besthoff Sculpture Garden expansion offers a lush, green space that allows NOMA to celebrate art, and broaden the museum’s opportunities to engage with the community in an inviting and environmentally sustainable way. The new garden showcases contemporary sculpture that has inspired our landscape architects to engage with the work and emphasize the relationship between landscape and art. A sculpture pavilion offers exhibition space for indoor sculpture and other works in NOMA’s collection that complement the garden’s installations.

“It has been a collector’s dream, putting together the sculptures that will populate the sculpture garden expansion,” said Walda Besthoff, patron of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. “Many outdoor collections grow over time, and do not always have the forcefulness or unity of a carefully designed entity within a specifically designed landscape. Sydney and I have had the rare privilege of formulating a plan in collaboration with the New Orleans Museum of Art.”

Like the existing garden, the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden expansion is free and open to the public, seven days a week.

Summer Hours | April 1 – September 30 | 10 am – 6 pm

Winter Hours | October 1 – March 31 | 10 am – 5 pm

Closed Endymion Saturday, Lundi Gras, Mardi Gras, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

Watch a video with highlights of opening day and an overview of the sculptures and other features in the Sculpture Garden: