Art OMI
If you live in Western, MA and have enjoyed visiting Art in the Orchard (Park Hill Orchard, Easthampton), Art OMI is the next progression. It’s like Art in the Orchard on steroids and it’s not that far away in Ghent, NY.
We went last weekend and enjoyed 3 hours of walking around the sculpture and architecture park. There is also a visitor/art center with bathrooms and a cafe where you can relax and take a break while looking at interesting indoor art.
There are over 60 large-scale pieces of art that are exhibited in nature as you walk along lovely wooded paths and a variety of clearly mowed grass paths. Despite a filled parking lot, we were rarely around other people.
Much of the art was massive and amazing to look at it and several of the pieces were interactive, which was really fun.
The park is open year round and is free of charge, but they ask for a donation when you register. Registration is also not required but recommended, especially on weekends.
I don’t want to be a spoiler, but I do want to entice you to go on your own adventure and breath some fresh air while walking outside exploring a new environment.
Here are some of our favorites.
This was a really fun, interactive Basketball Tree.
This sculpture was amazing because it kept “changing shape” depending on the angle we were looking at it.
This massive house is a reflection of a house in water, made of styrofoam.
This is a gigantic “tombstone” with the artist’s shopping list on it, which cracked us up.
This was one of many beautiful paths we walked on between the art exhibits.
We have many more pictures but these few give you a small sampling of the size and diversity of the artwork. You can also look at more of it online at Art OMI.
I looked before going and was a little bit disappointed because I felt like I already saw the art before I got there, but I was wrong.
Despite looking at online pictures, the art in person was much more impressive and there were many exhibits that were not shown online, so look all you want if it’s fun for you and will motivate you to go!
We “discovered” this place after a client told us about it (Thanks Jean!). If you know of an amazing place to visit where people can enjoy being outside getting exercise while also enjoying something new, please feel free to share.
