East Otto, New York
Griffis Sculpture Park was created as with the intention of combining art and nature. When it opened in 1966, it was one of the first completely open parks in the United States. It was founded by Larry W. Griffis Jr., who had been charmed by Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli during a trip to Italy. He searched long and hard and finally found a piece of land in Ashford Hollow where he could install some of his work. The Ashford Hollow Foundation for the Visual and Performing Arts was founded to manage the park; it is currently headed by Damian Griffis. Over the years, the size of the park has grown (thanks to the later acquisition of adjacent land), and the number of works has grown as well. There are currently two hundred pieces in the park, donated by the artists. The landscape in this park is extremely varied. There are approximately 445 acres of land, which allow visitors to be immersed completely in a natural setting and to interact fully with the installed sculptures. One thing that differentiates this park from most other art parks is the extent of interaction among art, nature, and audience: visitors are encouraged not only to look at the art, but to interact with it as if it were a natural element. In other words, they are welcome to touch the sculptures, walk through them, and even climb them. The installations are both figurative and abstract and are broken down into twelve thematic groups. Pieces include architectural compositions (Wood Pallet Egg is an ovoid structure made of pallets assembled and created by the architects Mehrdad Hadighi and Frank Fantauzzi); large-scale anthropomorphic structures; insects; and surreal, primitive figures.
NORTHEAST
Griffis Sculpture Park
Frank Fantauzzi, Mehrdad Hadighi, Wood Pallet Egg, 2010
6902 Mill Valley Road, East Otto, NY 14729 (716) 667-2808; www.griffispark.org ARTISTS Joe Bolinski, Dwain, Frank Fantauzzi, Larry W. Griffis Jr., Mark Griffis, Mehrdad Hadighi, Duayne Hatchett, Tony Paterson, Glenn Zweygardt SCULPTURES 250 GRIFFIS SCULPTURE PARK INFO
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