A Trip To The Centennial Sculpture Park

If you're a lover of the arts, check out Rochester's very own Memorial Art Gallery—an amazing spot for the artistically inclined. Let me tell you about my favorite part of the gallery—the part right outside! Outside of the Memorial Art Gallery's doors is the Centennial Sculpture Park, featuring art from all over that has made its way to Rochester grounds. This area of the gallery is free, allowing students to go on a warm day and enjoy the art without needing to pay a dime.

There are a couple of parking lots around the gallery, each of them closer to a different set of sculptures. When I arrived, I ended up closest to sculpture number 14—Creation Myth. If you enter off Goodman Street, you get to see this amazing site-specific installation of an artist attempting to bring their artwork to life. To make this sculpture even more endearing, there are tiny versions of the artist's character hidden around the park.

From here, the idea is just to follow the path. As a lover of animals, I adored seeing the sculptures of horses. Sculpture number 1, Untitled, is a horse made out of bronze that is designed to look like interlocking tree branches. Sculpture 13, Passenger Pigeon, depicts a passenger pigeon looking up to the sky—a homage to the now-extinct bird. Number 24, Penguins, depicts… well, you guessed it. It depicts penguins.

I loved walking around the park. The layout made it very easy to see all of the works of art as you walked about—no need for massive detours. Art is placed naturally around the space so you never feel as if something is out of place. Large works go in the middle of walkways, smaller works are alongside other smaller pieces, and so on. It made for a lovely viewing experience.

While the park itself is not massive, only featuring 25 sculptures, this lesser-known spot in Rochester is a spot I would check out!