Integrating Art and Landscape

Spring 2009 | Issue 3 | Volume 1

Integrating Art and Landscape: Integrating Art and Landscape: A New Curatorial Frontier A New Curatorial Frontier NC Museum of Art A significant addition to the cultural life of our state is now taking shape Rodin Sculpture Garden at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. The new Expansion Building, which will increase indoor gallery space by over 50%, will On the Boards soon be accompanied by courtyards and gardens that will extend the Museum’s programs outdoors and provide a quiet setting for the In the Summer Issue newly-acquired collection of sculptures by Auguste Rodin. At the same time, the Museum has recently approved a Sculpture Park Master Plan that will take the Museum experience further into the wider landscape. News These two models of exhibiting art in the landscape – the Sculpture North Carolina Museum of Art Ex- Garden and the Sculpture Park – exemplify two quite different ways in pansion Pursuing LEED Certification which Landscape Architecture can serve artistic and curatorial goals. Duke University’s Fuqua School of Sculpture Gardens Business Phase II Expansion Com- The traditional way in which Landscape Architecture has served the pleted visual arts is through the creation of the Sculpture Garden- outdoor gallery spaces designed for the display of three dimensional artworks UNC Chapel Hill Kenan Music Build- ing Dedication April 1, 2009 that can withstand the elements. These spaces tend to be simple walking surfaces, lawn or groundcover panels framed by formally For more LHPA News visit clipped hedges, tree rows and little other planting. Their design tends http://www.lhpa-nc.com to emulate the simple, quiet geometry of an indoor gallery so that the viewer’s attention is focused on the work of art.

Hanes Sculpture Plaza Sculpture gardens range in size with the scale of the works presented, University of North Carolina School of the Arts from the intimate confines of the walled courtyard at UNC Greensboro’s C o m m i s s i o n e d Weatherspoon Art Museum recently re-designed by LHPA, to Peter by Charlotte and Walker’s new 1 ½ acre garden at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Philip Hanes and conceived by Chi- Dallas which takes on the scale of civic space and the character of cago-based sculp- an urban park. In both instances, these venues are influenced spatially tor Richard Hunt, by the adjoining architecture and are themselves designed as formal soaring abstract figures in two works geometric museum rooms. are entitled “Con- versations.” The Sculpture Parks landscape setting Another landscape form, the Sculpture Park, provides a controlled but and welded steel sculptures coevolved with LHPA and the artist com- more spacious environment for the display of larger, more commanding municating during the design and construction of works. Often characterized by large open, woodland-edged lawns, each, resulting in a plaza that reflects the union of these pastoral settings provide the proper scale for placing monumental aesthetics and utility. The plaza resolves a number of functional pedestrian connections and handi- objects freely in space as well as juxtaposed with one another. capped access while creating a prominent setting for the sculptures to be viewed from the new Sculpture Parks may range from those like the campus setting at the Welcome Center, passing vehicles and campus University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, to the walkways. vast 500-acre landscape of Storm King in upstate New York. At any scale, the design objective for these spaces is to provide a quiet, passive setting for works of art whose origin is often independent from Weatherspoon Art Museum UNC Greensboro where the sculpture is ultimately exhibited. R e d e s i g n e d by LHPA, the Site as Active Participant u n d e r u t i l i z e d Another way of looking at the relationship between museums, art and museum entrance court has been landscape is to consider the landscape as an active participant in the t r a n s f o r m e d creation of the work itself. This approach takes its cue from the principle into an outdoor well-known to Landscape Architects as the “spirit of place.” sculpture garden for temporary works and pieces from the permanent collection. The North Carolina Museum of Art is developing its Sculpture Park in part A raised Cor-ten steel planting bed contoured in by commissioning new works that respond directly to the landscapes of a wave-like form straddles the existing courtyard the Park, and that could not be conceived the same way without their wall to create smaller outdoor rooms, and visually connects visitors from the outside sidewalk to specific siting. These include temporary, ephemeral and permanent the gallery entrance. Plantings are arranged as pieces. Several works of this type are already exhibited in the Park and space-defining elements, simple edge treatments celebrate the inherent relationship between art and physical context. and backdrops for artworks, placed in paved or planted surroundings and enjoyed from a number Gyre, by local sculptor Thomas Sayre, is a monumental piece whose of different vantage points. form and earthen materials are derived directly from the Park site. Other site-derived artworks include Martha Jackson Jarvis’s Crossroads and Chris Drury’s Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky. The North Fowler Overlook Terrace Carolina Museum of Art is one of a very few museums in the country to University of North Carolina School of the Arts approach art in this innovative way. The Fowler Overlook Terrace exemplifies a direct Under the guidance of curator Linda Dougherty, the North Carolina c o l l a b o r a t i o n Museum of Art will continue to serve as a place of inspiration for such b e t w e e n site-specific sculpture. To this end, Lappas + Havener, PA was retained L a n d s c a p e Architect and Artist. in 2008 to update the Museum Park Master Plan. The Master Plan Here, the work of describes a system of recreational foot and bike paths and provides a each informed conceptual framework for potential environments to be built over time the other’s design as settings for creative new artworks. The Plan calls for lighting and resulting in a dynamic and security improvements, reshaping the site’s topography, introducing s i t e - i n t e g r a t e d earth forms, landscape enhancements and restoration projects that composition. The LHPA-conceived piece borrowed will renew the Park’s landscape and support the Museum’s curatorial its form from the Daniels Plaza below, extending the pavement’s sinuous form vertically in cast goals. bronze onto an adjacent wall. Durham sculptor Michael Waller further expressed the organic form in both three dimension and etched bronze surface treatment to recall notions of vine, root, North Carolina Museum of Art tendril, bark and trunk. Rodin Sculpture Garden

Visually and programmatically connected with indoor gallery space, LHPA’s Rodin Sculpture Garden seamlessly extends the Museum experience to the outdoors. Like the building, by acclaimed New York architect Thomas Phifer, the design for the courtyard garden does not shout. Rather, its strength is found in its quiet and serene quality. A simple and flat ground plane anchored by a linear reflecting pool creates a compelling minimalist stage for Rodin’s figurative work. In contrast, slender trunks of bamboo add verticality, movement and an interplay of light and shadow within the Garden.

On the Boards at LHPA UNC Wilmington Oyster Hatchery

Fayetteville State University Campus Master Plan

McMichael Civic Center

The Pines at Davidson

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