Spectacular Sculpture Gardens

Situated in the rainforests of Marysville, Australia, Bruno’s Art and Sculpture Garden features the works of painter and sculptor Bruno Torfs. After years of traveling around the world to create and sell art, Torfs and his family moved to Australia to open a sculpture garden. Starting with only 15 life-size terracotta sculptures and despite a 2009 bushfire that destroyed much of his property, Bruno's art and sculpture garden has over 115 clay sculptures on display.

The Olympic Sculpture Park, opened in 2007 in an effort to preserve the downtown area of Seattle, is known for such sculptures as Eagle by Alexander Calder, Eye Benches I, II, III by Louise Bourgeois and Bunyon's Chess by Mark di Suvero. Laid out in a Z-shape, and broken into four separate landscapes, the park mixes art, landscape, architecture and infrastructure.

Artist Nek Chand started erecting sculptures illegally 36 years ago on public land he cleared in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh. Luckily, when local officials found out, they decided to pay him for his work instead of destroying it. Expanded to over 25 acres of mosaic courtyards, linked by walled paths and deep gorges with several thousand sculptures, the garden has attracted 12 million visitors since its creation.

A popular Minneapolis tourist attraction, the most recognizable piece at this garden is the iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Originally called the Armory Gardens, the art park has expanded to 11 acres, and has attracted more than 7.2 million visitors over the 22-year period it’s been open.

Grand Rapids, Michigan prides itself on the more than 40 sculptures found in its Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. The gardens feature artists including Aristide Maillol, Jacques Lipchitz, George Rickey and Nina Akamu, who created one of the most famous structures on the grounds, a 24' and 15,000-lb bronze piece called “The American Horse.

The Cass Sculpture Estate, a 26-acre garden at the Cass Sculpture Foundation in Goodwood, West Sussex, has commissioned 160 monumental works from over 120 artists, which have been placed in public and private collections all over the world. The works on display, which can total as many as 80 statues at one time, currently include artist Judith Cowan's “Touching Earth and Sky.

Situated on an Elizabethan-era estate north of London, the garden at Burghley was designed by Lancelot Brown in 1754. After being handed down through the generations, the grounds have since been turned into an attraction, which includes Garden of Surprises, a modern take on traditional water gardens that uses mirrors, mazes and water jets, as well as an annual exhibition in the Sculpture Garden, currently featuring works by the artist Julian Wild.

Deemed a National Historic Landmark and accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Brookgreen Gardens contain “the most extensive collection of figurative sculpture in an outdoor setting by American artists in the world,” according to its website. Located between the coastal towns of Myrtle Beach and Pawleys Island, the gardens contain over 1,400 works by 350 artists.