It’s starting to feel like we’re putting together a guide to sculpture parks in New York State, which is a great excuse to stretch the geography beyond the star-powered city and into the much quieter state around it.
After the epic Storm King and the clever, tongue-in-cheek Turn Park, we want to talk about Omi Art Park — arguably the most Instagram-friendly of the three.
Omi Art Park is both an open-air contemporary art museum and a beautiful landscape park, with patches of forest, rolling hills, open fields, and a small river.
It’s such a pleasant place to wander that many locals come here with cross-country skis in winter and do a loop or two. The whole space feels less like a museum and more like a stroll through a village on a bright, sunny winter day.
Unlike Storm King, where most works are commissioned or acquired from already established institutions, almost everything you see at Omi began as part of an artist residency. Most pieces are created during a five- to six-week stay, right on site.
If a work survives its first year, if it isn’t dismantled or removed, it stays. That’s how a collection of more than 80 objects has taken shape, with no attempt to impose a strict chronology, school, or canon.
That’s where the boldness and accessibility come from. No one expects you to gaze at the works solemnly. The park is designed for interaction — to make you smile, take photos, or get involved.
You might throw a ball into a tree made of basketball hoops, walk through a maze, step through a door that leads nowhere, or climb an elaborate staircase attached to a sort-of-building.
And if something looks like an abstract stick, it will at least be:
— enormous;
— painted a bright, unapologetic yellow.
Even the entrance tests your sense of humor and your ability to approach art with irony. Right at the gate stands a large, bright-red pickup truck with impressively oversized testicles.
Practical information
🎟 Free admission, but online registration is recommended. Closed on Thursdays.
📍 Address: Art Omi / 1405 Co Rte 22, Ghent, NY 12075 (about a 2.5-hour drive from NYC)
🌎 Official website: artomi.org
