Come Out and Play!
At the northwest corner of the campus, the Discovery Garden is an innovative, interactive outdoor space. Each of the garden’s four corners represents a tenet of Discovery – Creation, Inspiration, Exploration, and Education. At the confluence of these, in the garden center, lives Imagination. Fun and fanciful sculptures by nationally and internationally recognized artists dot the space. The exciting entrance to the space,
Noodles & Doodles (by Matthew Placzek) attracts children the moment they arrive.
The Artwork
NEW ARRIVAL!
The Discovery Garden has a new addition:
Fletcher Benton's Folded Square Alphabet O. Pictured is a detail . . . click it to read more!
Omaha sculptor Ron Parks created
Pencil Bench and
22 1/2 Degrees with Crayon Tips.
Artist and educator Peter Carter made
Cubular, a simple game that allows participants to create unique pixilated images with thick blocks of glass arranged in a frame. A new image is created each time the game is played. Lights beneath the board add another dimension to the piece at night.
Zimbabwean sculptor Bernard Matemera's
Metamorphosis is a green-hued serpentine stone figure typical of his African neo-expressionism represented in enormous and deliberately grotesque dimensions. Matemera was a founding member of the Shona Tengenenge Sculpture Village and was for many years the symbolic leader of that community.
George Sugarman's
Yellow Ascending has been a signature sculpture outdoors at Joslyn for many years. In its third location since the Museum's acquired it in 1983,
Yellow Ascending is an outstanding example of Sugarman's ability to translate his love of movement, color, and structure into a monumental metal sculpture. The piece is 30 feet tall and weighs 16,000 pounds. In the Discovery Garden, it is surrounded by an
Omega Sandstone amphitheater.
In the Discovery Garden's northeast corner is Patrick Dougherty's
Story-Telling Hut. For Joslyn’s "stickwork" installation, the Museum partnered with Fontenelle Forest Nature Center in Bellevue, Neale Woods in Omaha, the city of Omaha and the Storz Expressway Pumping Station, and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. To make his temporary sculpture, Dougherty visited locations to select indigenous materials for his sculpture: roughleaf dogwood (Cornus drummondii) saplings and willow saplings. Larger trees, 20–25 feet tall, were selected to form the natural armature of the piece, with smaller, more pliable saplings woven together with the assistance of many local volunteers to complete the structure.
The Paths
A meandering walkway of Mesa Buff-colored concrete encompasses the perimeter of the 11,000-square-foot Discovery Garden site. The path is punctuated with 12 concrete slabs in primary (red, blue, yellow) and secondary (green, orange, violet) colors; an aerial view reveals the pattern of the artist’s color wheel. Each of these has been transformed into a work of art — embossed, stamped, or embellished with glass and objects — by select groups of children and adults from The Autism Center of Nebraska, Boys Town National Research Hospital/Nebraska Foundation for Blind and Visually Impaired Children, Camp Fire USA, Girl Scouts, Octopuses Garden Art Alliance and the Eastern Nebraska Community Office on Retardation, The Ollie Web Center, students in Joslyn’s art classes, and the Museum’s Young Art Patrons, among others.