Caroline and I try to keep some of our flexible time free on Fridays to periodically take excursions to various local nature and cultural destinations. Sometimes (like this one) our excursions don’t end up on a Friday, but we like the catchy title for the series!
For more, you can see the entire series of Excursion Friday posts here.
======
‘Grande Disco I’ by Arnaldo Pomodoro
On this particular Sunday, we had a few hours to kill and the weather was finally starting to turn a little cooler. We’ve been pleasantly surprised at all of the great places we’ve found to visit within an hour of our apartment, and we were hoping to find another one.
Google Maps searching turned up the Donald M Kendall Sculpture Gardens, which is in Purchase, New York, on the grounds of the PepsiCo world headquarters.
With no traffic, it is just 30 minutes from where we live, so easy to get to. Given that the gardens are on the PepsiCo corporate campus and they want to try to maintain security and limit disruption on business days, the gardens are only open to the public from 10-4 on Saturday and Sunday, and only between April and October. School groups are able to make reservations for a weekday, but the public can only get in on the weekend.
The best part is that the cost to visit is FREE!
Caroline viewing ‘Passage’ by Richard Erdman
When we pulled into the campus at around 10:30, security was very friendly, but required a look at my drivers license, then provided a laminated placard outlining all of the rules (to place on the dashboard and to be returned on the way out), as well as a map of the area, and directed us to the parking area.
The weather was great, although a tad on the warm side. It was very sunny, around 80 degrees, and perhaps a bit humid – too hot for a hike or any kind of a strenuous walk, but a great day for an easy stroll, especially in shaded areas, and these gardens fit that bill.
‘Locking Piece’ by Henry Moore
While they provide you a handy map on the way in, there are no detailed signs to provide any information about the sculptures beyond the name and artist, so you should download their app, which provides great narratives on each of the pieces. The app is easy to find if you search PepsiCo sculpture garden.
Caroline’s favorite, ‘Personnage’ by Joan Miro
In total there are 46 sculptures around the campus, but 6 of them are located in restricted areas, since you are supposed to stay away from the main building itself. The restricted pieces are all visible, just from a distance.
The ground are very accessible, with a flat gravel path winding its way all the way around the grounds. Most of the pieces are located right off the path and so they are easy to see and examine. A few of them will require you to walk through the grass to get an up close look, but usually those are the larger pieces that you can certainly see nicely from the main path.
‘Jester’ by Wendy Taylor appears to be floating on the water
The grounds are beautiful and nicely manicured. The sculpture garden was recently closed for four years while the PepsiCo headquarters underwent renovations, and re-opened just last year.
In addition to all of the sculptures, there are 11 official gardens scattered around the campus. For the most part, they are adjacent to the main paths, so easy to explore them all. Our favorite was the lily pond garden, which had many lily’s and some were in beautiful bloom.
Lily Pad Garden at the Donald M Kendall Sculpture Gardens
It took us about an hour to leisurely walk the entire grounds and see just about everything. If the weather was cooler, and we really took our time to visit all of the garden areas, we still would have been done within 2 hours.
In the New York area, Storm King is considered the gold standard of sculpture gardens. We visited Storm King about 2 years ago and it was really great, but in comparison, Storm King is much larger (harder and more time consuming to see everything) and much more crowded. Also it has a large price tag – $18 for adults.
My favorite, ‘Totems’ by Robert Davidson
The sculptures and artists at the Donald M Kendall gardens were equally as impressive as Storm King, so it is a great alternative if you are looking for something more accessible, a little smaller, and a littler closer to New York City.
‘Giant Trowel II’ by Claes Oldenburg
Our favorite artist is Isamu Noguchi, and we’ve taken our kids to his museum in Queens many times. While I neglected to get a photo of it, we were so happy to see one of his pieces here, called Energy Void.
======
We will definitely be back when the weather is cooler to explore all the garden areas!
Besides Storm King, we’ve also been the the Minnesota Sculpture Garden. Also on our list to see is the Socrates Sculpture Garden in Queens.
What sculpture gardens have you seen and enjoyed that we should add to our list?
We are Scott and Caroline, 50-somethings who spent the first 20+ years of our adult lives in New York City, working traditional careers and raising 2 kids. We left full-time work in our mid-40’s for location-independent, part-time consulting projects and real estate investing, in order to create a more flexible and travel-centric lifestyle. 
Financial independence and early retirement is not something we originally focused on, but over time realized it was possible. Our free report, 
