Art in the Garden

Outdoor Collection + Tours

The Fort Worth Botanic Garden is a 120-acre living museum, containing plants from around the world as well as sculpture installed amidst the beauty of the 23 specialty gardens. We hold over thirty pieces of outdoor sculpture by artists such as Evaline Sellors, Gene Owens, Glenna Goodacre, Cameron Schoepp, Chris Powell, and Charles T. Williams. Many sculptures on our campus are part of the Legacy Collection of Fort Worth Public Art. We occasionally welcome contemporary sculptors to install large-scale artworks in our gardens for visitors to enjoy and reflect upon.

Monthly docent-guided tours of our outdoor sculpture collection are available the first Saturday of most months at 10 am. Admission to the Garden is free for members; non-members may purchase tickets here. Admission to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) building is free.

Indoor Art Venues

There are several indoor art venues across our campus. The BRIT building features the Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall and the Upper Atrium Collections Gallery. The Samples Hall features a rotating selection of contemporary, nature-related art, while the Collections Gallery features botanical prints from our Library collection, including The Arader Natural History Collection of Art. Pieces from our permanent art collection are installed throughout the Garden Center.

Andre Harvey, Spring Ballet, 1981

Spring Ballet welcomes visitors with a sense of motion and energy. Harvey was an American sculptor whose highly realistic works are primarily cast in bronze. He is known for his larger-than-life sculptures of animals, from frogs to pigs.

Gene Owens, Runnels, 1986

Gene Owens is a Fort Worth sculptor working in a variety of media. Runnels, a piece made of two fountains, flanks the entry to the Deborah Beggs Moncrief Garden Center. The sound of water sets the tone for a tranquil garden experience.

Glenna Goodacre, Naiads, 1989

Glenna Goodacre was a self-taught sculptor and is best known for the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, DC. Just beyond the main entrance of the Garden Center are her three bronze mythological water nymphs, or naiads.

Cam Schoepp, Pollen, 2000

Pollen is a seven-piece sculpture made from Texas granite and terrazzo. These multi-sided objects suggest something many Texans are familiar with, pollen. These larger-than-life pollen grains are stylized and textured, inviting touch.

Charles T. Williams, Solar Disk, 1964

Charles T. Williams is known for abstract forms and inventive use of new materials. This piece was fabricated from steel tank heads on milk trucks. The sculpture's reflective surface is an excellent foil to the surrounding landscape.

Chris Powell, to stand along beside you, 1989

Three totemic figures rise from the lawn in the intimate Beggs Courtyard. Made of stoneware, their surface has a rich and varied surface, almost as if it were a steel patina.