Our new and exciting Sensory Garden invites guests to experience sounds, textures, smells, and views of nature they may have never experienced before. Focused on activating all five senses and making nature inclusive for all people, the Sensory Garden has been expertly designed to allow all our guests to enjoy nature in a way that works for each individual. In the center of the space stands Meg White‘s three tiered limestone sculpture entitled Emerging.
It was donated to Bernheim in 1998 by Varley Wiedeman in memory of Burt L. Monroe, Jr., a Bernheim trustee and professor at the University of Louisville. This sculpture is in its original location but is newly surrounded by the recently opened Sensory Garden. The three rectangular tiers of limestone depict a figure emerging out of the stone.
White describes Emerging as being “about a person needing to move out from a place of security in order to achieve their potential in a world full of risk”. The sculpture resonates with the interactive elements of our new Sensory Garden as both invite you to leave your comfort zone to have a new and fulfilling experience.
Emerging gives the impression of the figure being within the stone, which later inspired Meg White’s work Discovery Muse, created for the city of Orlando, Florida. In Discovery Muse the head, hands, knee, and foot are poking through the ground cover to give the impression that the figure is hidden underground.
