Rodin Museum's new pop-up beer Garden and return of Oval+

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Sunday, July 8, 2018
Rodin Museum's new pop-up beer Garden and return of Oval+
Rodin Museum's new pop-up beer Garden and return of Oval+. Karen Rogers reports during Action News at 6 a.m. on July 8, 2018.

The Rodin Museum houses the second largest collection of works by sculptor Auguste Rodin, and at the museum's all-new pop-up beer garden, you can enjoy the collection along with music and some refreshing beverages.

Rodin was a French sculptor who, Rodin Curator Jennifer Thompson says, transcended time with his unique ability to model complex figures out of materials like marble, bronze, and clay. "Next to Paris, we're probably the second place in the world that you can go to really appreciate the work of Rodin."

Beginning July 20, you can admire those works while relaxing at the museum's pop-up Garden Bar.

"We'll be serving beer and wine in the garden," Thompson says. "A great place for a picnic; and so we're hoping that people will bring their own sort of snacks, maybe a baguette."

The Garden Bar and indoor galleries will be open for extended hours, until 8 p.m., allowing visitors to see the collection in a whole new light.

"The summertime is just extraordinary late in the day and Rodin's pieces become a little mystical and magical," Thompson says.

The garden features eight sculptures including the iconic, The Thinker.

"This sort of sense of a man so deeply engaged in thought that even his toes seem to be sort of wrinkled up and sort of contracted in this action," Thompson says.

The Rodin Museum also owns the first bronze cast of The Gates of Hell. Inspired by Dante's epic Infer-no, it became the defining project of Rodin's career.

"This 13-foot tall piece that Rodin spent 37 years working on it, it's his kind of evocation, his imaginative exploration of hell," Thompson says.

The Garden Bar coincides with the return of Oval+, a pop-up park along the Parkway in Eakins Oval.

"We're, of course, delighted," Thompson says. "There's a particularly nice synergy between the sculpture, the architecture and the garden. It's a little jewel box on the Parkway."

The Rodin Garden Bar will be open Wednesday-Sunday July 20- August 19th. For tickets, visit TheArtsInPhilly.com.

Rodin Museum | Facebook

2151 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA 19130

215-763-8100

Oval+ | Facebook

July 20-Aug. 19

Eakins Oval (2451 Benjamin Franklin Parkway), Philadelphia, PA 19130

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