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Note: All travel is subject to frequently changing governmental restrictions—please check federal, state and local advisories before scheduling trips.

Who says museums need to have walls? These 10 bring art, history and even a dose of kitsch to the great outdoors, which seems especially right these days, when fresh air, open skies and a little culture feel like luxuries. Even better, as the seasons change, and with it, the light and the landscape, no two visits are ever exactly the same.

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Storm King Art Center: Mountainville, NY

Flickr CC: Shinya Suzuki

Get ready to feel small at Storm King, where sculptures like artist Mark di Suvero’s E = MC2 towers 90 feet into the sky and Zhang Huan’s Three Legged Buddha gracefully arches well over the heads of viewers. Then there’s the landscape: 500 acres of forest and meadow dotted with 100 or so works and surrounded by thousands of acres of untouched parkland. Don’t miss Maya Lin’s calming Storm King Wave Field or Richard Sera’s Schunnemunk Fork, which is evolving into its hilly gallery. Storm King closes for the season on December 13, 2020.

Covid protocols: Timed tickets must be purchased online; the museum is closed on Tuesdays. Restrooms and bike rentals are available; the main building is not open. Shuttle service from Metro-North is available only on weekends and must be reserved. No groups larger than six.

Colonial Williamsburg: Williamsburg, VA

Flickr CC: CW

If you haven’t visited Colonial Williamsburg since you were a kid, it’s time to head back: Though it’s still fun for little ones, there’s plenty for your adult self as well, including an ongoing archaeology project unearthing artifacts from the Williamsburg home of planter John Custis, as well as a second project which will reveal a building that once housed First Baptist Church, one of America’s oldest churches founded by Black people. Thanks to a recent $42 million expansion, Colonial Williamsburg’s art museums can now display a larger portion of its collection of more than 67,000 antiques and works of art and 7,000 pieces of folk art.

Covid protocols: Prepare to be flexible; capacity caps for indoor spaces (including shuttle buses and horse-drawn carriages) are in place, so you may need to wait in line. Masks are required; face shields are not acceptable.

Neon Museum: Las Vegas, NV

Flickr CC: Tom Hilton

Long before laser shows and dancing fountains, flashing neon marquees gave Vegas its iconic glow. Celebrate all those buzzing bulbs at Las Vegas’ Neon Museum, where more than 200 neon signs rescued from shuttered casinos and hotels are displayed in two neon “boneyards” that surround a striking arched Jetson-style visitors center. Guided tours and a new sound and light show at the North Gallery offer insight into the history of each sign; at night, 19 fully restored signs are fully lighted for guests. Tip: Come at dusk for the best photos!

Covid protocols: Timed tickets must be purchased online. Photography is permitted, but only with a phone or tablet.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden: Minneapolis, MN

Flickr CC: Paul VanDerWerf

Maybe it’s Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s whimsical Spoonbridge and Cherry, or perhaps the tempting wooden swing that hangs from Mark di Suvero’s massive Arikidea, but even during the winter, there’s a certain exuberance to this 11-acre urban sculpture garden. A partnership between the Walker Art Center and the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, the verdant space is also a haven for garden lovers, who may notice new plantings of native, water-loving grasses in a low, boggy section of the park and a stunning shaded allee of Linden trees reminiscent of Europe’s formal gardens. Admission is free.

Covid protocols: Restrooms within the park are closed; visitors may use facilities in the adjacent Walker Arts Center during opening hours. Masks are required indoors and outdoors if social distancing is not possible.

Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum: Joshua Tree, CA

Flickr CC: Channone Arif

Artist Noah Purifoy transformed desert to gallery and junk to art when he filled 10 starkly beautiful acres of Mojave Desert with more than 100 large-scale abstract sculptures assembled from castoff materials ranging from corrugated metal and building materials to old shoes, fast-food wrappers and a toilet. Purifoy’s goal was for viewers to consider the original life of its parts and the stories left behind. Today, as exposure to the elements has caused each piece to erode and rust, the works remain relevant as a social commentary on neglect. Admission is free; there are no facilities.

Covid protocols: Park restrooms and visitor centers are open; exhibition areas within visitor centers remain closed.

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Oak Street Alley Murals: Phoenix, AZ

Flickr CC: Ms Phoenix

There’s something about Phoenix that inspires mural painters: A colorful work by the artist Clyde is tucked under an overhang at 1 N First St, a 12-artist collaboration decorates a wall behind the Churchill food hall and Jane Goat’s stylized Sonoran desert enlivens the Hyatt, among others. Set amid the 1920s bungalows and Tudors in the city’s leafy Coronado neighborhood, you’ll find Oak Street Alley, and a cinder-block stretch between 14th and 16th streets decked out with colorful (and always changing) murals created by more than 40 local artists. To get there, grab a pedicab or hop on a rental GridBike for the 3-or so-mile ride from downtown.

Covid protocols: None

Besthoff Sculpture Garden: New Orleans, LA

Flickr CC: Bernard Spragg

With 90 sculptures set within a blooming garden of native plants and trees, the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden brings nature and art together in a beautiful 11-acre package that was originally designed in 1872 by Frederick Law Olmsted’s landscape architecture firm. Though filled with contemporary sculptures by Frank Stella, Teresita Fernandez and Henry Moore in a nod to its 19th-century roots, the garden is also home to several works by classic artists including Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Pierre Auguste Renoir.

Covid protocols: The Garden is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Wednesday through Sunday, the Garden is open to seniors and immune-suppressed individuals only between the hours of 9:30am-10:30am and opens to the public at 10:30am. Through December 31, 2020, the $5 admission fee is waived for health care workers and first responders. The Garden will be kept at 25% capacity; face masks are requested. Restrooms are open.

Laumeier Sculpture Park: St. Louis, MO

Flickr CC: artistmac

Grab the dog, pack a picnic, bundle up the kids, download the free Art & Nature Guide and head out for the day to this free, 105-acre sculpture park located about 20 minutes from downtown St. Louis. Once you’ve arrived, you’ll find more than 60 works that can be accessed via the park’s .64-mile long main loop or the slightly longer (and more rugged) Art Hike Trail. There’s a children’s sculpture garden, too, where little ones can climb on insect-inspired works by Tom Huck and Jessica Stockholder’s stage-like Flooded Chambers Maid.

Covid protocols: The park is open daily; the adjoining Aronson Fine Arts Center is closed. Restrooms are available in the Way Field.

Brookgreen Gardens: Murrells Inlet, SC

Flickr CC: Rain0975

When early 20th-century sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington and her husband, industrialist Archer Huntington, opened their 9,000-acre winter estate near Myrtle Beach to the public in 1931 as Brookgreen Gardens, it was the country’s first outdoor sculpture garden. Today, it remains the largest, holding more than 1,200 works within its lush outdoor galleries graced with blooming shrubs, centuries-old live oak trees and peaceful ponds. While you’re there, take a pontoon boat tour of the river, a guided walk through plantation ruins and a stroll through a history and wildlife preserve.

Covid protocols: Indoor galleries, restrooms and some food venues are open; masks are strongly encouraged. Wheelchairs and strollers are no longer available on site (guests must provide their own).

River North (RiNo) Murals: Denver, CO

Flickr CC: Jules Antonio

Denver’s hip RiNo neighborhood may have started life as a collection of old warehouses, but these days, its walls, staircases, alleys and storefronts have become canvases for more than 100 vibrant murals depicting everything from eyeballs and a pet fish on a leash to giant lips and, of course, and actual rhino. Even better, you can spend the day hunting for the perfect Insta-shot: the vast area is chockablock with coffee houses, bars, restaurants and funky shops.

Covid protocols: Anyone over the age of three must wear a face covering when inside a public place, riding in a taxi, or on public transit or waiting in line.

Tagged: California, Colonial Williamsburg, Colorado, Denver, Las Vegas, Midwest, Minnesota, New Orleans, New York, North Carolina, Palm Springs, Virginia

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