Visit the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey

In Hamilton, New Jersey, on part of the land that once hosted the annual New Jersey State Fair, is the Grounds For Sculpture, a magical place where visitors can lose themselves in the magnificent and the unexpected.

The 35 acre museum and sculpture garden has both indoor and outdoor exhibit space, as well as two cafés, a restaurant and a gift shop. In the museum buildings, light floods through roof-high windows, bathing the sculpture in the same, ever-changing light as those out in the park. It is a great place to start, to acclimate oneself to being surrounded by sculpture, for once outside, the experience becomes a fantastic journey of discovery into modern art.

Some sculptures take residence on a concrete patio, gathered around a babbling water feature. Others nestle beneath trees, along gravel paths and beside still ponds and rocky waterfalls. There are stone forms that rise above like dinosaurs, and stainless steel constructions that hover like alien spaceships. On the day I visited, the weather was cool, and I was able to warm myself in a little wooden hut that contained a cozy seating area around a fireplace.

Perhaps the most breathtaking is the display area that resembles an ancient temple. Stone walls surround this space, in which various forms of sculpture await inside secret hideaway niches. A long promenade is flanked by goddesses and columns. Then around one corner, one is confronted with a stark contrast – George Segal’s iconic “Depression Breadline” with its desperate men forever frozen in line.