Botanical Garden

CPA and the Cleveland Botanical Garden have collaborated on three projects aimed at enhancing the Garden's grounds with the work of both local and national artists.

Beginnign with Cleveland artist Brinsley Tyrrell's Butterfly Gates which serve as the transition from the formal garden area into the Hershey Children's Garden. The three-dimensional gate for the Hershey Children's Garden was designed by artist Brinsley Tyrrell and created with blacksmith Steve Jordon. Together they created the "Butterfly Gate" which brings to life small insects out of wrought iron.

In May 2004, acclaimed artist Albert Paley’s work, the Kohl Gate, was unveiled at the garden. Cleveland Public Art managed the artist selection process for the gate’s design. Through a gift from the Donna M. and Stewart A. Kohl Fund at The Cleveland Foundation, the Kohl Gate’s design came out of a national call for artists and juried competition. Paley’s sixty-foot-long, fifteen-foot-high work depicts enormous, stylized leaf shapes cut of heavy COR-TEN® steel. The steel plantings mirror the Botanical Garden's own collections of plants native to Costa Rica, Madagascar, and Ohio, reflecting the dynamic energy of the garden and its historic environs.

The most recent addition (2005) to the Botanical Garden's collection of public art is "Sprouting Seeds" by California Artist Troy Corliss. The sculpture consists of five free-standing structures positioned randomly on the grassy mound at the entrance to the Gateway Garden. Stainless steel sprouts emerge out of four of five diamond-shaped terrazzo seeds; each of the seeds is about 4 feet tall, while the sprouting shapes vary in height and length up to 22 feet. The sprouts arch, spiral and branch as they appear to grow from the seeds. In contrast to the others, one of the terrazzo seeds hosts a flowering-cap also constructed of stainless steel. Corliss has been creating both provocative public art and smaller scale sculpture for fifteen years. He was selected for the project after an extensive national search.

Other Facts

The Hershey Garden and Gates were made possible by the Hershey Foundation. The Donna M. & Stewart A Kohl Fund at the Cleveland Foundation supported the work of artist Albert Paley, and Troy Corliss's sculpture is the gift of longtime garden supporter and avid gardener Lauretta M. Dennis, DVM.