9 places in Pennsylvania where art meets the outdoors

Nature and art align in these outdoor art displays, sculpture parks, and gardens in Pennsylvania.

We may think of the natural world as separate from humans, but that’s not true. These Pennsylvania art displays and installations reinforce the relationship between people, nature, and art, encouraging visitors to connect art and creativity with the beauty of the world outside.

1. The Bower – Shermans Dale

The Bower is a garden of native meadows and woodlands in Perry County, not far from Harrisburg. Nestled on the northern slope of the Appalachian Mountains, the native landscape gives rise to a sculpture park that serves to emphasize the harmony between nature and art.

On 36 acres—30 acres of woods and six acres of meadows—native plants and art illustrate what it means to be connected to place, specifically the Pennsylvania Appalachian Mountain region. Sculpture art represents work from 10 different artists, including six native Pennsylvanians. Examples include a map of Pennsylvania’s ecoregions on steel, five large bronze spheres representing grains of pollen, and an abstract depiction of a heron.

2. Painted Kayaks of Portland – Portland 

The Painted Kayaks of Portland are a series of kayaks painted by local Portland artist Sarah Lanier and displayed around the small Northampton County town. The seven kayaks feature scenes depicting the beauty and history of the Delaware River town, like the charming pedestrian bridge that leads to New Jersey, the downtown area, or the historic schoolhouse that is now the Portland Borough Municipal Office.

The public art installation was set up to celebrate the reopening of Route 611, which had closed for nearly two years and stymied Portland pit stops from those traveling to or from the popular Delaware Water Gap.

3. Art in the Wild at Wildwood Park – Harrisburg

Wildwood Park is a 229-acre park just outside of bustling downtown Harrisburg, home to a nature center, freshwater wetlands, and a three-mile trail that circles the lake. It’s along this popular park trail where you’ll find Art in the Wild, an outdoor art exhibit that features artwork coexisting with the environs of Wildwood Park.

Now in its 13th year, Art in the Wild showcases works made mostly of natural materials from more than a dozen artists. You can see the installations throughout the warmer months (April through September), when Art in the Wild is on display. And this winter, you could even apply to have your work featured at the park next summer!

4. Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art – Millersburg 

The Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art has a mission of joining art and the natural world, inspired by the work of Pennsylvania wildlife artist Ned Smith, who was from Dauphin County’s Millersburg. The Susquehanna Valley center connects art and nature with exhibitions at its galleries and educational programs for kids and adults, both indoors and on its land and trails.

The Ned Smith Gallery is home to hundreds of drawings and paintings created by Smith, who illustrated for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, outdoor magazines, and other clients. Two other galleries exhibit local and world-renowned artists. Trails on the center’s more than 500 acres of Central Pennsylvania hardwood forest and meadow are open year-round, and the trails and galleries are always free to visit.

5. Karl Stirner Arts Trail – Easton

The 1.75-mile Karl Stirner Arts Trail winds along Easton’s Bushkill Creek. Named for a popular sculptor from Easton and set along an old rail line, the arts trail is both a sculpture park and recreational trail tying art with the outdoors.

The trail features works by more than 15 different artists, and they’re not all sculptures. Artists have also painted features along the trail, worked with trees, and even installed musical instruments for visitors to play. The trail also hosts artists-in-residence to involve the community with their trail art projects as well as events like movie screenings and poetry sessions.

6. Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden – Philadelphia 

The Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden is part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The bi-level garden, which overlooks the Schuylkill River and the Fairmount Water Works, features large art pieces alongside stylishly designed plantings of native flowers and shrubs. Fountain walls conceal the noise of the highway and also emphasize the site’s connection to the nearby river.

The sculpture garden is also an example of outdoor art meeting a practical purpose: The garden sits atop the museum’s underground parking garage. And as an eco-friendly “green roof,” the garden captures stormwater runoff that a concrete roof would not.

7. “Momentum” at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden – Pittsburgh

This summer at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, you can view the gardens alongside a work of art: Patrick Shearn’s “Momentum.” For the project, Shearn and Poetic Kinetics created two large-scale installations made of more than 11,000 colorful streamers of thin sailcloth fabric—”Elevated Reflection” set above the garden’s lotus pond and “Vivid Echo” in the Garden of the Five Senses. “Elevated Reflection” is four giant lily-pad-like shapes hanging from ropes above the pond, which continuously shift into new shapes in the breeze.

“Vivid Echo” contains handwritten messages from Pittsburgh children on what nature means to them. It’s also installed at a low height so children (as well as adults) can walk through it and read the messages. “Momentum” is on display all summer.

8. Fallingwater – Mill Run

Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Fallingwater is also an architectural homage to nature. The design itself merges nature with a modern human home: The house is built above a waterfall and is surrounded by large windows and terraces to constantly invite the outdoors in—and the inhabitants outside. Even the color of the home—a light yellow ochre—matches the color of the leaves of a nearby native plant.

Wright referred to his philosophy of designing structures in harmony with their surroundings as “organic architecture.” You can visit and tour Fallingwater, the epitome of organic architecture, in Fayette County’s Mill Run, not far from Pittsburgh in the beautiful Laurel Highlands.

9. Creative Communities Art Trail – Wayne County

When complete, Wayne County’s Creative Communities Art Trail will be made up of six community art parks along Route 191 in the Pocono Mountains. So far, two art trail sites have been unveiled, one in Equinunk and one in Newfoundland.

Located on the grounds of the Equinunk Historical Society, the Equinunk site is a “pocket-sized” sculpture garden containing art pieces and installations from Equinunk and Lenape artists, as well as functional art like a handmade picnic table. The Newfoundland site is located in Carlton Drake Memorial Park and showcases a large mosaic mural—with tiles made by community members—that illustrates the past and future of Newfoundland.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Related: Pennsylvania’s wildflower trails: 6 must-see destinations for springtime hikers