When we headed home from Boston we stayed overnight in Fishkill, NY. The next morning we drove to Storm King Art Center in the Hudson Valley. I’ve wanted to visit this place ever since I heard about it a few years ago especially when I learned that Andy Goldsworthy one of my favorite artists, had created a stone wall there.
It snakes through the trees, looks like it goes under the water and emerges on the other side, then heads straight up an embankment to end abruptly at the road.
Here’s a little background about Storm King Art Center from their flyer:
Storm King Art Center is a museum that celebrates the relationship between art and nature. Over 500 acres of landscaped fields, rolling hills, meadows and woodlands provide a dramatic setting for more than100 post-World War II sculptures by internationally renowned artists. At Storm King, exhibition space is defined by earth and sky. Storm King’s museum building contains galleries for smaller sculptures, special exhibitions, and the Visitor Center.
We got there early to rent bikes which was an awesome way to get around. We zipped from sculpture to sculpture and the kids were posing for pictures with each one. The landscape is spectacular and from reading this in the brochure is carefully considered to enhance the experience.
Storm King Art Center’s dramatic landscape includes farm fields, formal alleles, natural woodlands, lawns, native grasses, wetlands and water. As Storm King has grown, it’s landscape has been gradually altered to accommodate and enhance the collection, frame vistas and encourage movement through the site.
I bet the grounds are beautiful in the Fall and well worth the trip. If you stay over night, Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park and Walkway Over the Hudson are other attractions close by that I recommend. The walkway is the preserved and reconstructed Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge that is now a State Historic Park open year round. Here we are at the halfway point which is in the middle of the Hudson River, pretty cool!
