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Besthoff
Sculpture
Garden

Art and nature in harmony

Welcome!

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ADMISSION

Admission is free. Donations are appreciated.

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HOURS

Open seven days a week
Summer Hours (April–September) 10 am–6 pm  | Winter Hours (October–March) 10 am–5 pm

ACCESSIBILITY

Wheelchairs may be used throughout our barrier-free property and are available upon request.

Image: Elyn Zimmerman’s Mississippi Meanders bridge is illuminated at dusk.

More than 90 works in a picturesque landscape

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Indiana, Robert

LOVE (red outside violet inside)

1966-1997

Shonibare, Yinka

Wind Sculpture V

2013

von Rydingsvard, Ursula

Dumna

2015

Zimmerman, Elyn

Portal Lethe

1992

Houseago, Thomas

Striding Figure (Rome I)

2013

Scully, Sean

Colored Stacked Frames

2017

Bell, Larry

Pacific Red (VI)

2016-2017

Gehry, Frank

Bear with Us

2014

Pepper, Beverly

Split Ritual II

1996

Zimmerman, Elyn

Mississippi Meanders

2019

Venet, Bernar

11 Acute Unequal Angles

2016

van Bruggen, Coosje and Oldenburg, Claes

Corridor Pin, Blue

1999

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Diana

1886, cast 1985

Stella, Frank

Alu Truss Star

2016

Thomas, Hank Willis

History of the Conquest

2017

Flack, Audrey

Civitas

1988

Moore, Henry

Reclining Mother and Child

modeled 1975, cast 1977

Background

The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden occupies approximately eleven acres in City Park adjacent to the museum. Atypical of most sculpture gardens, this garden is located within a mature existing landscape of pines, magnolias, and live oaks surrounding two lagoons. The garden design creates outdoor viewing spaces within this picturesque landscape. Originally conceived in 2003, the Sculpture Garden doubled in size in 2019 and has grown to include more than 90 sculptures. READ MORE

THE BESTHOFFS

Sydney and Walda Besthoff are the namesake visionary founders behind a world-renowned sculpture garden for New Orleans.
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THE DESIGN TEAM

Architects, landscape architects, lighting designers, and arborists were among the contractors who made it all possible.
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DOWNLOAD A MAP

Stroll along meandering walking paths and identify all 97 works of art.
DOWNLOAD

VIRTUAL VISIT

See highlights of the Sculpture Garden in a virtual tour produced in partnership with the Google Arts & Culture Initiative.
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SUPPORT THE EXPANSION

You can play a role in the historic expansion of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden by making a gift to support the project.
LEARN MORE 

WATCH A VIDEO

Relive the excitement of the grand opening of the Besthoff Sculpture Garden expansion in May 2019.
WATCH

Object Lesson:

Pablo Casals’s Obelisk, 1983
Arman (1925–2005)

Bronze

Pablo Casals’s Obelisk, a towering accumulation of welded bronze cellos, dominates the waters of a lagoon in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Standing over twenty feet tall, the Obelisk, built in homage to the world-renowned Spanish-Puerto Rican cellist and human rights activist Pablo Casals, is an imposing example of monumental sculpture by French-born artist Arman.

READ MORE

 

Purchase a book.

The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art offers detailed entries on 64 artworks in the original 2003 garden, as well as a bibliography and overview of the garden’s founding. 192 pages, hardcover. Edited by Miranda Lash. $49.95

Purchase Now

NOMA on Instagram @neworleansmuseumofart

POV: You’re tasting all of the drinks from the LOVE in the Garden Cocktail Challenge sponsored by @sazeraccompanyofficial 🍹

Congrats to this year’s winners 👇

Best in Show: Zen Castro (@latitude29nola, @espiritunola, @turningtablesnola) with “Every Breath You Take” feat. @corazon_tequila

Fan Favorite: Lara Desmond (@dba_neworleans, @usbgnola) with “Mi Familia, Mi Corazon” feat. @wheatleyvodka

Additional thanks are due to all of our judges and our presenting sponsor for the event @hancockwhitney

#ExploreNOMA
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Meet the creative bartending talents in the eighth annual LOVE in the Garden Cocktail Challenge, sponsored by @sazeraccompanyofficial. You may recognize their faces from some of the best bars around New Orleans, including @latitude29nola @espiritunola @dba_neworleans @pigeonandwhale @jewelnola @dovetailnola @turningtablesnola @usbgnola

LOVE in the Garden Presented by Hancock Whitney is tomorrow, Friday, September 22.

🎟️ Tickets are available at noma.org/love and at the door.

#ExploreNOMA #HancockWhitneyLOVE #LoveInTheGarden2023
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A Kermit-approved glass pitcher? 🐸🏺⁠

So-called "lily pad" pitchers—named after the thick tendrils of glass forming pools akin to aquatic plants—are coveted by collectors of American glass.⁠

“Lily pad” pitchers are historically associated with the glasshouses of southern New Jersey, where the nation’s first successful glass production started in the 18th century.⁠

This forested area—copious wood is needed to fuel furnaces for melting glass—was home to 11 glass factories by 1820, many employing German immigrants with skills from European glass factories.⁠

The bread-and-butter of these American factories would have been practical glass items such as window panes and bottles. Fanciful objects like “lily pad” pitchers are thought to have been made in the glassblower’s after-hours.⁠

👉 Click the link in our bio to learn about how this "lily pad" pitcher was made in a @nolanews article by Mel Buchanan, NOMA`s RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design.⁠

#ExploreNOMA⁠
—⁠
🎨: United States, Possibly New Jersey, "Lily Pad" Pitcher, c. 1825–1850. Glass, free blown. Gift of Melvin P. Billups in memory of his wife, Clarice Marston Billups, 58.109.
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Something for Everyone.

 

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