Lynden Sculpture Garden as a Social Distancing Respite for Pandemic Weary Visitors
The Lynden Sculpture Garden (LSG), formerly owned by Harry Lynde Bradley and his wife Margaret (Peg), and later by their daughter Jane Bradley Pettit, is located in River Hills, Wisconsin on the Bradley's 40-acre English garden estate. Today the outdoor museum, devoted to monumental sculptures collected by Peg Bradley, is owned and operated by the Bradley Family Foundation. It is open to the public and is visited by thousands of people each year. The Bradley's former farmhouse has been renovated and is the site of events year-round. The COVID-19 pandemic occurred just as the LSG staff was preparing for the 2020 season. In early spring 2020, the grounds were closed to the public, but as the pandemic progressed (and eased), as Wisconsin's Safer at Home order expired and weather improved, the gardens were opened, free of charge, for socially-distanced, small, self-guided tour groups. The collection of items in the COVID-19 MKE exhibit on the LSG's staff response to the pandemic includes a 35-minute oral history recording, featuring Executive Director Polly Harris. Polly answers questions about her organization's developing response to the pandemic and the challenges it posed for her museum, along with some speculation on the future of museums worldwide, post-COVID. Several pages of virtual exhibits are also part of this collection, demonstrating how quickly and effectively the LSG staff was able to adjust and stay connected to their visitors, reaching out to a wider audience, even though the physical museum was closed.
Polly Harris discusses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations of the Lynden Sculpture Garden in River Hills, Wisconsin, a northern suburb of Milwaukee, how the garden is helping people to cope with isolation caused by social distancing and Wisconsin's "Safer At Home" order, the museum's quick development of several virtual exhibits and the future of her museum and the museum industry worldwide.
The homepage for Lynden Sculpture Garden at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. This version from mid-May 2020 is upbeat and forward looking as the pandemic began to subside and it appeared that the Garden's summer programs would proceed as previously planned.
The Lynden Sculpture Garden Virtual Hub. From this page, visitors to the LSG website can take virtual tours of the permanent exhibits and learn more about temporary exhibits and projects, both large and small, created by Garden's artists in residence. The Hub is updated regularly to keep visitors returning to explore new projects in detail while the museum was technically closed to the public during the pandemic. The long-term hope is that visitors will be able to check out the projects of artists in residence to better understand their work when they come to LSG after it reopens.
In late March 2020, the staff and dedicated docents of the Lynden Sculpture Garden introduced a virtual tour highlighting the 50 permanent monumental sculptures on display. The tour was produced from photographs and materials on hand at the time and was quickly pulled together into an online exhibit in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In her oral history interview, LSG Executive Director said that she hoped the virtual tour would provide a gateway for everyone, whether or not they had visited the Garden, to enjoy the sculptures at home and feel compelled to see them in person when the museum reopens.