Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

The Lena Meijer Conservatory, a five-story, 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m²) facility, supports tropical plants from around the world.[10] The conservatory houses diverse tropical plants, including coconut palms from the Pacific, fig trees from India, exotic orchids from Central and South America, and Asiatic bamboo and banana trees.[19] Additional indoor gardens include a carnivorous plant house, an arid house for cacti and desert vegetation, and an area with a Victorian theme.[19]

Opened in June 2004,[20] the Lena Meijer Children’s Garden was also inspired by and named for Lena Meijer.[21] As with much of the larger park, this garden contains a number of sculptures. Included among the areas designed for children within the Lena Meijer Children's Garden are a log cabin, a labyrinth, and a rock quarry where kids can dig for buried fossils.[21]

The Gwen Frostic Woodland Shade Garden, dedicated in June 1998, commemorates the influence of Gwen Frostic, a life-long Michigan resident, artist, author and businesswoman known for her naturalistic block prints of local flora and fauna. The garden features woodland plants including ferns, hostas, bleeding hearts, rhododendrons, and azaleas.[19]

Opened on June 10, 2015, the 8-acre Richard and Helen DeVos Japanese Garden supports horticulture and sculpture. Designed by Hoichi Kurisu, president and founder of Kurisu International, Inc., the garden includes a variety of horticultural elements, including zen-style and bonsai gardens, scenic bridges, waterfalls, and a tea house.[22] Kurisu's garden contains several contemporary sculptures by major international artists selected especially for the location. The Japanese Garden includes a ten-foot work in granite by contemporary artist Anish Kapoor.[22]

The Wege Nature Trail branches off from the garden area into a preserve of native Michigan trees and wetlands.

The Wege Nature Trail, named for Peter M. Wege,[23] is a paved path that winds through a forested section of the property. The trail presents various native ecosystems of West Michigan and provides sites for bird watching along areas of natural prairie and wetlands. . It is connected to the Frey Boardwalk.

The Peter M. Wege Library, which holds reference books and periodicals on horticulture and sculpture, is also named for Peter Wege.[23]

Amphitheater and landscape.

The outdoor gardens include a New American Garden by influential[24] landscape designer James van Sweden, known for his painterly approach to garden and landscape design,[24][25] and an English Perennial & Bulb Garden from designer Penelope Hobhouse, an award winning garden designer, lecturer and author.[25]

In 2003, two additional aspects of the garden were completed and opened to the public. The Michigan Farm Garden, with heirloom vegetables, orchards, and figurative animal sculptures, provides families with the opportunity to experience the context of a 1930s farm complete with a 100-year-old barn and replica farmhouse from Lena (Rader) Meijer’s childhood, and the Frederik Meijer Gardens Amphitheater, an outdoor musical and theatrical venue with a covered stage and tiered lawn seating for 1,900 persons. Past musicians featured in the Amphitheater include Harry Connick Jr., B.B. King, Sheryl Crow, the Steve Miller Band, and Wynton Marsalis.

Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park primarily collects the work of sculptors.[26] It also contains drawings, provided they were created by artists who identify as sculptors.[26] As of May 2015, the permanent collection contained over 300 artworks.[27] It features works by prominent British and American sculptors including Claes Oldenburg, Louise Bourgeois, Richard Serra, Barbara Hepworth, and Henry Moore, in addition to major works by the international artists Coosje van Bruggen, Ai Weiwei, Beverly Pepper, and Jaume Plensa.[28][29]

Fred and Lena Meijer purchased a second work by glass artist Dale Chihuly in 2009 as an addition to the permanent collection.[30]

In 2016, the museum acquired the archives of sculptor Beverly Pepper, over 900 works on paper.[26][5] Following the museum's acquisition of Iron Tree by Ai Weiwei, a major exhibition of his work was held at the Gardens in 2017.[31][32]

The collection contains numerous outdoor monumental sculptures throughout the property and also indoors in the conservatory, specialty gardens, and gallery. Among the many highlights for visitors is The American Horse, sculpted by Nina Akamu as a homage to the original commission to Leonardo da Vinci of the Duke of Milan, as well as works by Auguste Rodin and Degas in the Victorian Conservatory.

The Sculpture Program of the Gardens features three temporary exhibitions annually. Featured exhibitions have included works by Andy Goldsworthy, Tom Otterness, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and George Rickey.