Introducing the Oldfields Estate Grounds and Gardens:
Encompassing 26 acres on the grounds of the IMA, the Oldfields estate and Lilly House are the former home and estate of the late Indianapolis businessman Josiah K. Lilly Jr. The estate includes a trio of gardens designed in the 1920s by Percival Gallagher of the famous landscape architecture firm Olmstead Brothers -- the same firm that designed New York City's Central Park.
A Trio of Gardens:
- The Allee and Border Gardens stretch 775 feet in front of Lilly House and include 58 red oak trees, a circular pool, and a fountain.
- The Rapp Family Ravine Garden descends more than 40 feet behind Lilly House and features a cascading stream, three rock-rimmed pools, and more than 19,000 bulbs, perennials, trees, and shrubs.
- The Richard D. Wood Formal Garden features rose-draped arbors, roses, perennials, annuals, boxwood, evergreen, and a fountain. Bulbs and spring annuals provide spring color and fragrance.
A Guided Garden Tour:
Free guided walks through the IMA's gardens are offered from April through September on Saturdays and Sundays at 1 p.m. Tours meet at the main visitor entrance to Lilly House. Group tours can be arranged by contacting IMA's Group Tour Coordinator at (317) 920-2679 or emailing grouptours@imamuseum.org.
Self-Guided Tree Walks:
You can pick up a map to take a self-guided "Conifer Walk" to identify trees and shrubs of various colors and textures that typically have needlelike leaves, or take the "Flowering Tree Walk," also self-guided, to explore many spectacular species of trees in bloom at various times of the year.
Coming in 2010: Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park:
The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park is scheduled to open in the spring of 2010. Adjacent to the museum, the acreage consists of untamed woodlands, wetlands, meadows and a 35-acre lake. The park will be one of the largest museum art parks in the country, and the only one to feature the ongoing commission of site-specific artworks to promote understanding of the unique, reciprocal relationships between contemporary art and the natural world.
The first artists to display their work will be: Atelier Van Lieshout, Kendall Buster, Alfredo Jaar, Jeppe Hein, Los Carpinteros, Tea Mäkipää, Type A, and Andrea Zittel.