10 Art Parks You Didn't Know Existed

You can probably rattle off the names of top art museums and institutions in the country; however, how many art parks do you know located across America? Such outdoor galleries may have developed in response to the surge in large-scale works in the contemporary art world. Huge sculptural pieces have led to large, public spaces where visitors can fully experience the over-sized artworks. Art Parks: A Tour of America's Sculpture Parks and Gardens, a book by Francesca Cigola breaks down the art parks across the country. We've picked a few of our favorites for 10 Art Parks You Didn't Know Existed.

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Location: Ghent, New York

The OMI International Arts Center is a nonprofit that provides spaces for artists to showcase their works, which includes the Fields Sculpture Park (open since 1998). The park is meant to provide an organic landscape with which artists can integrate innovative works. The site was also built in compliance with the latest standards for environmental sustainability.

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Location: Sonoma, California

The nine acres of land that make up the Cornerstone Gardens are truly astounding. In the gardens, 29 artists were asked to link architecture and nature in permanent installations. Some repeated patterns across the land to make a patchwork of their designated areas. Others, like Claude Comier with his surreal work "Blue Tree," made impressive standing sculptures.

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Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

We associate General Mills with cereal, but their sculpture garden should also make you go cuckoo. The company has an extensive art collection, and it made sense to create the garden as General Mills acquired more and more pieces. While the area has seen sculptures from Richard Serra, Mel Kendrick, and Richard Artschwager, the park is dominated by Jonathan Borofsky's cutout masterpiece "Man with Briefcase."

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Location: Ridgefield, Connecticut

You may have heard of the Kouros Gallery in Manhattan, which focuses on contemporary art. The owners, Angelos and Camillos, have always been fans of sculptures and wanted to open a garden, which they did about an hour away from Manhattan. The lush pasture in southern Connecticut provides a wonderful backdrop for works, creating a dialogue between nature and artist. By reserving the garden areas for smaller sculptures and the filed for larger ones, the garden plays on the visitor's visual experience. The work above is Steve Tobin's work entitled "Syntax."

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Location: Brooklyn, New York

Pratt Institute is a well respected art and design school located in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. Pratt's sculpture park provides a green oasis within the school. Every year, 50 works are installed throughout the campus from established and emerging artists. Multimedia artist Raphael Zollinger's "Welcome" appears above.

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Location: Englewood, Colorado

If you ever visit the Outdoors Collection and Sculpture Garden in Colorado, you will notice that the open-air art museum focuses on architectural works. It is located in Englewood, a metropolitan area in Denver. The intention was to incorporate art into everyday life by installing large-scale works. The institution has developed this goal by unveiling works such as Patrick Dougherty's "Stickwork."

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Location: New York, New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's roof garden displays a new annual installation by a contemporary artist every May until October. The open-air space spans about 9,700 square feet with views of Central Park. The area has seen works from big names such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Joel Shapiro, and Tomas Saraceno. American artist Roxy Paine brought his work "Maelstrom" to the garden as well.

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Location: Clemson, South Carolina

The Nature-Based Sculpture Program takes art and nature to the next level by asking artists from across the world to make works over a one month period. Artists create their pieces with the help of volunteers and students from Clemson University. Most works are temporary and incorporate natural materials that are intended to organically merge with the surrounding nature overtime. The park encourages community involvement, asking the public to help with the works that are created on its 300 acres. Bavarian artist Nils-Udo's "Clemson Clay Nest" is featured above.

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Location: Long Island City, New York

Founded in 1986, the Socrates Sculpture Park was named after the philosopher whose life was spent trying to discover the truth. The park seems to follow his sentiment, with a lot of experimental works. The space has seen over 65,000 visitors and works from more than 500 artists, including Alissa Neglia whose work "Lace" appears above.

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Location: Des Moines, Iowa

The Des Moines Art Center is made up of three interconnected buildings; however, the center needed a place to house their larger works, hence the Greenwood Park and John and Mama Pappajohn Sculpture Park. The area has become an attraction for locals with a variety of works on display, including Jaume Plensa's genius alphabetic works "Nomade."

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