Sculpture Garden

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will mark the long-awaited reopening of its redesigned outdoor Sculpture Garden on Saturday, October 31, 2026. Following a four-year transformation of the 1.3-acre landscape, the refreshed garden will display nearly sixty sculptures—a 50 percent increase over the previous installation—set within a newly planted environment of close to 30,000 trees and plants. Architect and artist Hiroshi Sugimoto has overseen the redesign, paying deliberate homage to Gordon Bunshaft’s original architecture while improving public access and reunifying the museum’s campus.

Sugimoto’s plan restores Bunshaft’s long-closed underground passageway, reconnecting the garden to the Museum plaza for a seamless visitor experience. The design introduces dry-stacked stone walls hand-cut from 950 tons of stone, creating distinct areas that invite exploration and providing a timeless backdrop for both sculpture and performance. The East Garden showcases foundational Modernist bronzes by Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, and others, alongside recent acquisitions and international commissions. The Central Garden features an expanded water feature that can either reflect and cool the space or be drained for performances and educational programming. The West Garden is a dedicated green space for special presentations, encircled by recent acquisitions, while the West Lawn will debut with Yoshitomo Nara: Sentinels of Stillness, a major exhibition running from October 31, 2026 through November 7, 2027. The reopening includes free public programs and a celebratory opening weekend on October 31 and November 1, 2026.

When: Saturday, October 31, 2026; opening weekend runs October 31–November 1, 2026. The end date for the garden’s reopening installation is not specified.

Venue: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Tickets: Free public programs; no ticket price is listed.

Lineup: Works on view include sculptures by Hans (Jean) Arp, Huma Bhabha, Max Bill, Andrea Cascella, Willem de Kooning, Lucio Fontana, Elizabeth Frink, Theaster Gates, Alberto Giacometti, Mark Grotjahn, Raven Halfmoon, Lauren Halsey, Barbara Hepworth, Richard Hunt, Izumi Kato, KAWS, Jeff Koons, Gaston Lachaise, Henri Laurens, Lee Ufan, Jacques Lipchitz, Aristide Maillol, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Yoshitomo Nara, Yoko Ono, Woody De Othello, Pablo Picasso, Chatchai Puipia, Pedro Reyes, Germaine Richier, Auguste Rodin, Sterling Ruby, Arlene Shechet, David Smith, Tony Smith, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Tomonori Toyofuku.

Design: Hiroshi Sugimoto, working with New Material Research Laboratory (NMRL), cofounded by Sugimoto and Tomoyuki Sakakida with YUN Architecture; Quinn Evans as architect of record; and Rhodeside & Harwell Inc. as landscape architect.

Features: The renewed garden offers five entry points, including a wider entrance on the National Mall and ramps from the north and south, plus new east and west overlooks, flexible spaces for commissions and performances, expanded seating, and increased shade throughout.

Note: The East Garden highlights five sculptures by Henry Moore and two by Barbara Hepworth, along with works by Rodin, Lucio Fontana, Elisabeth Frink, Willem de Kooning, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Germaine Richier, and Tomonori Toyofuku. The Central Garden serves as the revised entry-exit to the reopened passageway, and the West Garden is encircled by recent acquisitions from artists such as Mark Grotjahn, Raven Halfmoon, Lauren Halsey, and Liz Larner.