Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum
Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum is a 300-acre non-profit park which features 80 large sculptures and is located in Hamilton, Ohio. In addition to outdoor sculptures, the grounds also feature a pioneer house dating to the 1820s with an unusual arched ceiling.[1] A 10,000-square-foot Ancient Sculpture Museum opened in 2007 and includes antiquities from the Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Egyptian civilizations. The museum models a traditional ancient Roman home and houses the founder’s ancient sculpture collection. A Museum Gallery opened in 2016 and is dedicated to showcase contemporary regional and international artists. Visitors can get information about the art pieces (often with recordings from the artists themselves) through the app Otocast.
History
Harry T. Wilks (1925 - 2014) purchased the land in 1987 to build a home, the Pyramid House. He gradually acquired adjacent pieces of land, built roads, small lakes and trails, while acquiring large sculptures. When it opened in 1996, André Emmerich, writing for The Atlantic, considered it "the most beautiful natural setting of any art park in the country".[2] In 1997, Wilks established the non-profit organization that runs the park. In addition to its permanent collection, it hosts temporary exhibits.
In 2018 the Board of Trustees conducted a nationwide search for a new Executive Director, and appointed Sean FitzGibbons in 2019.[3] FitzGibbons has worked on the design and fabrication of public art installations in San Antonio, Knoxville, Houston and Seattle. A graduate of the University of Texas and Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned a master's of fine arts degree, FitzGibbons has trained in sculpture and visual arts and has mounted more than 20 personal exhibitions in the past decade at galleries and conferences throughout the U.S.[4]
Collection
The collection includes 71 permanent art pieces, and the park also hosts temporary exhibits. Highlights of the permanent collection include “Cincinnati Story” by George Sugarman, a colorful structure that once stood in downtown Cincinnati, the “Age of Stone,” a huge work by Jon Isherwood that’s composed of nine pieces of massive granite ranging from 12- to 18-feet-tall which has been compared to Stonehenge, and the park’s dramatic signature piece, “Abracadabra” by Alexander Liberman, who also constructed the welded steel “Laocoon” and Torre II. Artist Bill Barrett also has a permanent piece in the collection.
References
- Cincinnati Magazine. Emmis Communications. 2007. p. 122.
- Emmerich, André (1996-08-01). "Abloom with Art". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
- Rutledge, Mike (March 18, 2019). "New leader wants to connect with community at 21-year-old park and museum". journal-news. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
- Courier, Cincinnati Business (2019). "Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park hires executive director". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
External links
- https://www.pyramidhill.org/
- Atlas Obscura, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park
- Pyramid Hill: a regional treasure, Dayton Daily News, July 2014.
- Park celebrates its 20th anniversary, Butler Country Local News Now.
- Artswave Aerial tour of Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park.
- PBS Video Harry Wilks talks about the history of the largest sculpture park in the Midwest region. February 3, 2010.
- International directory of sculpture parks, Birkbeck, University of London.