The Josephine Sculpture Park is just a few minutes south of Frankfort off U.S. Highway 127, and it's a fun, fresh-air diversion. I went there this spring as blue skies gave a pleasant backdrop to the sculptures made of metal, wood and stone. I have some experience with outdoor sculpture parks, including a notable one in my home city of St. Louis.
Frankfort native Melanie VanHouten founded the park on her grandparents' land -
Josephine, the park's namesake, was her grandmother -
in September 2009. VanHouten earned her BFA at the University of Kentucky in sculpture and later spent 10 years in Minneapolis, studying at the University of Minnesota and teaching at the College of St. Catherine, where she received inspiration visiting the Franconia Sculpture Park.
The Josephine Sculpture Park rests on 10 acres of gentle hills and includes 17 varied sculptural pieces and an amphitheatre. Each sculpture has a small sign that boasts the artist's name, title, date and a brief statement from the artist about the piece. The sculptures come from local, regional and national artists.
I was drawn to what looked like a fanciful apparatus of both earth and air, painted teal with plastic wings, titled "Clarity Vehicle." This was the first piece installed in the park and was created in 2003 by Mollie Rabiner, of North Kingstown, R.I. As I meandered along the walkway connecting the artwork, I noticed that the sculptures, which varied from metal, wood, wire, plastic, stone and other materials, had begun to meld with their natural surroundings -
unpainted metal was rusting, hollowed areas held small puddles of recent rainwater.
For a number of pieces, movement is implied if not actually possible. New York artist Doug Schatz's "Crucible" has three pointed angling supports which, with attachments, hold a suspended wire sphere with lines radiating outward. Daniel Koplin's "Mobile Life Support Unit -
Model A" appears to be a fanciful and hybrid sort of automobile, with suspended canvas roof cover, wooden wheels, metal frame, and plastic and glass test tubes. Some of the sculptures have signs indicating that children are permitted to climb on them.
The titles of other works are just as intriguing as the sight of the sculpture itself, including "Turtle Island Drum," "Relic Number 3," "Who Says What We Call Home?" "Biomarker" and "Kentucky Lodestone."
I enjoyed the outdoor collection of art and implied narrative mystery. If you'd like to join others for one of the park's special events, check their website for postings on community celebrations, artistic collaborations and opportunities to show your own sculpture in the park.