Newfields

A few years back we stopped thru Indianapolis on a longer drive, and visited the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s attached sculpture park, which was then called the 100 Acres. On this trip, we went back twice: once to experience the sculpture park (and woods and lake), and another day to visit the rest of the grounds. The whole operation has been rebranded as ‘Newfields’, and it was definitely the highlight of the Indianapolis leg of this trip.

First of all, it’s more like a conglomeration of things: a sculpture park, a nature reserve, a botanical garden (kind of), a historic home, a greenhouse, a beer garden, and an big serious art museum. The grounds are beautiful, and we had an actually lovely rainy day to explore it. (A light rain in the summer! So great.) Felix has been interested in ‘fancy’ homes lately, so we took the time to tour the Lilly House which is there, a preserved mansion. The Lilly family (of Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals) developed the grounds and gardens, and then donated the whole shebang to the city to found the art museum.

It was great, and we’d definitely be members if we lived there. One highlight was how cool the new branding was, actually:

The type treatment and visual style of even the interior signage was just on point. So nice!