PHILADELPHIA’S CALDER SCULPTURE GARDEN REMOVED

Peter Mucha of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the sculptures in the Calder Sculpture Garden, a two-acre plot once eyed for an Alexander Calder Museum near the Ben Franklin Parkway, have been removed as of this week. The plot will now be just a park maintained by the city. The sculpture garden’s funding by the Pew Charitable Trusts, announced as five million dollars in 2001, simply expired, officials explained. “No one ended the arrangement,” said Aviva Kievsky, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office. “It was just an eight-year term that ran itself out.” The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art issued a statement late yesterday afternoon on the Calder sculptures: “The project has concluded after a successful display of sculptures over the last eight years. However, we are delighted that the city-owned Calder sculpture, Three Discs, One Lacking, will remain at a nearby location along the Parkway, providing a further reminder of the significance of the Calder family of sculptors both for the Parkway and the city itself.”