The long-awaited Calder Gardens announces a leader and a September opening
Juana Berrio, the new program director, wants to create a robust slate of educational, inspirational, and wellness programs to invite and engage the community.
Calder Gardens, the long-awaited showcase for one of Philadelphia’s most famous artists, is starting 2025 with two major announcements:
Plans for a mid-September grand opening and the hiring of the new institution’s senior director of programs.
Juana Berrio, 45, who was chosen for her experience in arts programming, education, and curating nationally and internationally, including in her native Colombia, starts her new position on January 21. She will oversee daily operations at the new exhibition space and gardens dedicated to artist Alexander Calder, and will be responsible for bringing about a broad slate of programs aimed at engagement and enrichment.
Berrio said she sees unique possibilities in Calder Gardens’ distinctive blend of art, architecture, and nature, located between 21st and 22nd streets on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
“I’m hoping to accomplish the development of a program that goes beyond art. It’s not going to be limited to contemporary art and experience that has to do just with artists,” said Berrio. “I’m hoping to include practices related to wellness, to the environment, and to have a different perspective to nature at large.”
It will be a place where people can experience and enjoy Calder’s work, she said, and at the same time, “we’re going to create an environment for introspection.”
That approach very much appealed to the people who hired her for the new role.
“Calder Gardens is an entirely new type of cultural institution focused on nurturing introspection and personal growth through the art and ideas of my grandfather,” said Alexander S.C. Rower, the artist’s grandson, president of the Calder Foundation, and chair of the Calder Gardens Curatorial Committee.
“Juana Berrio’s expertise and wide-ranging interdisciplinary experience — shaped by openness, compassion, and curiosity — makes her ideal for this essential role at Calder Gardens,” Rower said.
“I think the thing that was most outstanding about her was her ability to convene various audiences in innovative ways,” said Marsha Perelman, chair of the Calder Gardens Board, who added she and her fellow leaders were looking for somebody different from “a more typical institutional director.”
Museum Row’s soon-to-be newest addition has other big news, too.
Perelman said a mid-September opening for the Gardens is now expected. Construction on the building should be completed by March 31. The artworks will be moved in during the spring and summer months, she said. The gardens will be cultivated.
During that time, Berrio will be developing her programs and hiring staff. Currently the curatorial and sustainability advisor to the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in New York City, Berrio said she will continue to work with the program as a consultant.
Berrio will also be working with Thom Collins, Neubauer Family Foundation executive director and president of the Barnes Foundation, which will be providing administrative, operational, and educational programming support and leadership to the new institution.
Berrio, whose official title is the Marsha Perelman Senior Director of Programs, will be the most senior team member on-site at Calder Gardens. Apart from the Barnes, she will work closely with the Calder Gardens Board and the curatorial committee.
Calder Gardens has been planned as a sanctuary-like exhibition space for a changing body of Calder’s works, but also as a tribute to his family’s artistic legacy in the Philadelphia area.
Calder’s grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, immigrated to Philadelphia from Scotland in 1868 and went on to create the statue of William Penn atop City Hall. Calder’s father Alexander Stirling Calder codesigned and created the Swann Memorial Fountain, the centerpiece of Logan Square.
Like many major projects, this one, originally projected to open in late 2024, met with some obstacles. During the planning and design phases, a water main was discovered on site and had to be relocated. That work was done in late 2022.
In addition, flood-proof measures were added to the project due to Hurricane Ida flooding in 2021.
The project’s budget is now just under $58 million, including construction costs, plus an anticipated endowment of over $30 million by the time the institution opens.
Acclaimed landscape architect Piet Oudolf is the creative design force behind the garden. The building was designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the firm behind London’s Tate Modern.