MISSION

Engaging the community through art and nature

CELEBRATIING 50 YEARS OF LAUMEIER SCULPTURE PARK

Laumeier Sculpture Park is celebrating 50 years as a place where art and nature come together to spark curiosity, creativity, and connection. For five decades, visitors have explored the landscape, encountered art in new ways, and delighted in the discovery of the unexpected.

Join us for a full year of programming celebrating Laumeier's 50th anniversary, featuring special exhibitions, new artwork commissions, community storytelling, and a commemorative publication. Signature events such as our annual Art Fair, Summer Art Programs, and Laumeier After Dark will include special anniversary elements.

The year opens with Begin Again: 50 Years and Counting, an indoor exhibition exploring five decades of artist commissions and exhibitions. On view February 7 – December 13, 2026, the exhibition features hundreds of artists and rarely seen works from our collection. It also revisits artworks from the Park’s past that have come and gone, while reflecting on Laumeier’s ongoing relationship with artists and the landscape.

Laumeier’s landscape is not only activated by the art, but by our visitors and their experiences. Throughout 2026, we invite the community to help us capture this living history, with Laumeier Stories, a community-driven digital storytelling project that invites you to share your stories, videos, photographs, and reflections.

For more information, to participate, and to stay updated on anniversary events, visit www.laumeiersculpturepark.org/50years.

OUR STORY

Founded in 1976, Laumeier is one of the first and largest dedicated sculpture parks in the country. In 1968, Mrs. Matilda Laumeier bequeathed the first 72 acres of the future Laumeier Sculpture Park to St. Louis County in memory of her husband, Henry Laumeier. In 1976, local artist Ernest Trova gifted 40 artworks, with an estimated market value of approximately one million dollars, to St. Louis County for the formation of a sculpture park and gallery. Laumeier Sculpture Park opened as part of the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation system on July 7, 1976. One year later, Laumeier Sculpture Park was officially incorporated.

Today, Laumeier is an internationally recognized, nonprofit arts organization that is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and operates in partnership with St. Louis County Parks. Projects and programs are supported by the Mark Twain Laumeier Endowment Fund, the Regional Arts Commission, Missouri Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Laumeier presents more than 70 works of large-scale outdoor sculpture in a 98-acre park located in the heart of St. Louis County. Free and open daily, Laumeier serves 360,000 visitors of all ages each year through sculpture conservation, education programs, temporary exhibitions and public events.

In 2015, Laumeier closed its first major capital campaign, Sculpting the Future, culminating in the renovation of the Laumeier’s 1917 Estate House into the Kranzberg Education Lab and the construction of the new Aronson Fine Arts Center for exhibitions, programs and events.

Laumeier Sculpture Park: First Decade

Laumeier Sculpture Park: Second Decade

We acknowledge the ancestral lands of the Osage Nation, Missouria, and Illini Confederacy, the lands on which Laumeier Sculpture Park is located. We pay respect to their elders, past and present.

PRONUNCIATION

"Laumeier" is often mispronounced. Between a St. Louis street named Lohmeyer and a downtown casino named Lumiére, there is no shortage of variations. The correct pronunciation is "Lau" (rhymes with "now")–"meier" (rhymes with "higher"). Laumeier is the family name of Henry and Matilda Laumeier, who were the last owners and residents of the property where Laumeier sits today. Henry Laumeier's ancestors emigrated from Germany in the mid-19th century; therefore, we use the traditional German pronunciation of his surname.

2025 YEAR IN REVIEW BOOK

We hope you enjoy looking back at some of our favorite moments from 2025!

OPERATING PARTNERS

Laumeier Sculpture Park’s ongoing operations and programs are generously supported by St. Louis County Parks and Recreation; with support from the Regional Arts Commission; Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; this project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; among other corporations, foundations, individual donors and members. The ongoing conservation of the artworks in our collection is supported by the Mark Twain Laumeier Endowment Fund.