Laumeier Sculpture Park Summary
The Laumeier Sculpture Park is a fun visit with the family on a weekend morning or afternoon, but probably more fun for adults after the initial shock wears off.
It's right near Emmenegger Nature Park that we've been to a thousand times and Powder Valley, which I've driven past a thousand times.
I've been to a couple of other sculpture parks across the country, including the mini one at the Saint Louis Art Museum, and this ranks up there for me. I would definitely recommend a visit at least once if you live in the area to see if it's your cup of tea.
Speaking of cup of tea, I'm surprised they didn't have a giant cup of tea sculpture. They did have:
A giant 30-ft eyeball
A giant deer
A maze
A big tire
And "The Way"
We also found a ten-minute hiking trail that connected the lower parking lot to part of the park. We did not make it to the South and Eastern parts of the park because it was freezing rain out.
The highlights for me were the eyeball, the art exhibit by Vaugn Davis Jr, and the "The Way."
The highlights for the kids were literally running from sculpture to sculpture without taking anything in, but they did stop for a while at the Eyeball and "The Way."
As an adult, taking in the whole park would take several hours and be a couple of miles to walk
Laumeier Sculpture Park Things To Do
The path we took started at the main entrance. We parked in lot 1, which starts off with sculptures in the parking spots. There are letters above the spots to spot.
The kids got out of the car and ran to the maze in the Northern Grove while I checked out where the bathrooms' location.
We then walked past the museum to the Ferring Family Foundation Museum Lawn to start our whirlwind tour. It was drizzling and freezing out, so this tour didn't get to fully encapsulate everything the park offers, but we still had fun.
The kids immediately started in a full sprint towards the Eyeball. It's at the center of the lawn and the "big" attraction. I have to admit, it's pretty awesome.
The sprint continued to the oversized tire, the oversized deer, and then to "The Way Up," which was under construction but still imposing. These sculptures don't "speak to me" the way contemporary art does, but I still get a sense of awe from the size and creativity.
In general, you'll either love it or hate it.
From there, we sprinted down to the South Lawn. The Hawthorne Tree sculpture on the way down actually looked pretty different, close-up and far away, kind of trippy. After taking in the south lawn, we saw an entrance to a hiking path that the kids ran into before we could stop them.
The path takes you back up from where you came and exits near the La Libellule, which looks like some kind of fairy.
In the distance, we caught the big black thing before passing by the tree house.
We made our way back up to the parking lot before stopping in the Aronson Fine Arts Center to get warm. Turned out that they had Vaugn Davis, Jr's work on display, which turned out to be a highlight for me. I could spend an hour with his work by myself.
After that, it was back into the car where we had some snacks, and I got to take stock of the kids' favorite things which were the Eyeball, Maze, and "Way Up."
Laumeier Sculpture Park Details And Info
One huge perk of the sculpture park - it's free! These are the kinds of places that you start to take for granted living in St. Louis. For some reason, the Zoo, Science Center, Art Museum, everything it seems, is free.
My son came here on a field trip with his camp the last couple of years, so the overall place is very kid-friendly, however, they did seem to get bored very quickly. After running around, they were kind of over it after 20-30 minutes. It didn't help that it was freezing outside, but they would have been done anyway.
I could have hung out for hours, assuming I could feel my toes.
There are bathrooms in the Fine Arts Center and in the dedicated bathrooms at the front. The Kranzberg Education Lab didn't look open when we were there
Hours
The Laumeier Sculpture Park is open from 7 a.m. until 30 minutes past sunset. The Park is free and open to the public year-round, with the exception of special events.
The entire Park is closed to the general public on the Thursday-Sunday of Art Fair weekend in May and the Saturday of Laumeier After Dark.
The Aronson Fine Arts Center + Whitaker Foundation Gallery is open Wednesday - Friday from 12-5 p.m. and Saturdays & Sundays from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. The Center + Gallery will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve.
Parking At The Laumeier Sculpture Park
There's a ton of parking, and it wasn't a problem for us as we were the only ones there. I could see you maybe having to figure out which of the six parking lots to use on a more busy day or during the festival.
Laumeier Sculpture Park Receipt
