Garden of Delights

June - October 2025

Opening: Saturday, May 31 2025; 3-5PM | Add to calendar

Artists: Ben Quesnel, Britta Riley, Erica Hauser, Jess Stapf, John Stowe, Kate Dodd, Kris Hauser, Lady Labor: Roxanne Faber Savage & Cystal Hedin, Margaret Roleke, Maria Markham, Natalya Khorover, Rachel Urkowitz, Rosanna Scimeca, Sergey Jivetin, Suzan Shutan, Tatiana Arocha, Ursula Endlicher, and others.    

An Exhibition of Growth, Creativity & Connection

In an age defined by constant movement and digital overload, Garden of Delights offers a creative sanctuary of slowness and playfulness—a space to reconnect with nature, community, and the tactile joys of artistic creations. This outdoor exhibition transforms a field of tarmac in the center of Kingston into an oasis with the "Garden" as a concept for an exhibition of dynamic, living artworks celebrating the intersection of art, horticulture, sustainability, and humanity’s rightful place in the natural world. 

Garden of Delights features a cross-pollination of perspectives and mediums that combine to blur the lines between aesthetic and function. The exhibition equally prioritizes interactive sculptures, as it does mobile garden beds, irrigation systems, fountains, and dedicated spaces for private contemplation and communal gathering. These diverse forms and artworks combine to highlight the social and environmental value of green spaces in blighted urban contexts, offering a model for building sustainable, nature-centric values into our cities for the benefit of all. The result is a responsive, ever-evolving landscape and participatory art space. 

The exhibition will evolve in three stages, Seeding (Spring), Rooting (Summer), and Blooming (early-Fall). Each of these three phases will host distinct public offerings and a rotating exhibition of artworks, aligning with the various phases of transformation in the sculpture garden. Public programming will include monthly performances, film screenings, and youth workshops that aim to foster ongoing public dialogue and local participation.

When you step into Garden of Delights you experience the possibilities of beauty and utility in alignment, where art and nature are equally alive, and where the simple act of being at the confluence of these two influences restores the spirit. Through the integration of art and nature, Garden of Delights offers the City of Kingston a new community resource that will continue to grow, offer nourishment freely, display resilience when we need its example, and provide a slow, immersive experience to contrast the face-paced rhythms of modern life, accessible to those who need it most, and for all.

After closing for Winter 2025, the exhibition is planned to return for additional programming in Spring 2026.