The New Season: Fall 2025 – Art, from Calder sculptures to Impressionist

In Philadelphia this fall, a new oasis awaits: Welcome to Calder Gardens, named for the famed sculptor Alexander Calder.

“I’m hoping that Calder Gardens will really actually be a place for introspection,” said Sandy Rower, president of the Calder Foundation (and grandson of the sculptor).

Beneath the garden, 31 Calder works fill an indoor/outdoor sanctuary. The space is meant for reflection and contemplation. “We really want you to be able to have an unmitigated experience. We want nobody between you and the art,” Rower said.

As the seasons change, some of the art will, too, complementing the evolving landscape.

“The gardens themselves have this own kind of cyclical nature, rather like a Calder sculpture,” said Rower.

Calder is best known for transforming the way we interpret art forms. Rower said, “My grandfather realized you could draw a figure in a wire – like, a two-dimensional drawing but expanded in three dimensions. Make a volumetric drawing of a person, a portrait, or an acrobat, or an animal, or some scene, and creating something that was experienced by people in a very different way than you would a solid mass.”

Just like the garden’s namesake, the space embraces the unconventional.

“I’m trying to work with my grandfather’s own idea, where he doesn’t predispose you to a certain outcome,” Rower said. “He’d like to create a forum where there’s an object in space, and you enter that space. The space is part of the work of art. For some people these kind of subtle things can happen, and you can have an experience. Hopefully it’s an uplifting one.”

Also on display

The Calder Gardens aren’t the only place in Philadelphia to immerse yourself in art and nature. The Barnes Foundation this season presents the wild workings of Henri Rousseau.

Other art world highlights this fall include a host of Impressionist works on display coast-to-coast. Take in Monet’s illustrations of Venice in Brooklyn. Look out at Camille Pissarro’s landscapes in Denver.  Or say aloha to Mary Cassatt portraits in Hawaii.