Monarch Sculpture Park near Tenino celebrates its survival

Four years after it was on the edge of closing, Monarch Sculpture Park near Tenino continues to offer visitors the gift of art.

“My idea was that the park is my gift to the community,” said founder Myrna Orsini, who has directed the park since it opened in 1998. “I was a foster child in Washington state, and this is a way that I can give back. That’s what started this whole thing.”

Saturday, the park celebrates its survival and its connection with the Chehalis Western Trail with the opening of the new group show “RSVP” in the indoor gallery, a bicycle decorating contest and music by the Holy Oly Girls.

The developed 10 acres of the 80-acre park are filled with sculptures by artists from around the world, with 108 currently on view and 80 in the permanent collection, including a dozen by Orsini herself.

She created the park’s newest sculpture, an arch of bicycle parts, which was installed last week. “It leads people from the bike trail into the park,” she said.

She also created a giant steel monarch butterfly and a huge hand holding 15-foot-long pickup sticks.

Monarch is a place to enjoy both art and nature. There’s even a musical garden.

The park, which was scheduled to close because Orsini could no longer take care of it alone, has survived thanks to the efforts of community leaders. This year, it’s slated to be taken over by the Creekside Conservancy, which will manage the park and set aside 65 acres for conservation.

The park at one time attracted about 3,000 visitors each year, Orsini said, but when it was in danger of closing, attendance dropped.

“It dwindled on down,” she sad. “We were getting maybe 300 to 400 people a year, but it’s picking up again now that the word is out that it definitely is open.”

Visitors can stop at the park any time during daylight hours, but public gallery events can currently be held only four times per year. Saturday’s is one such event. (The gallery also is open by appointment.) The park needs a new land-use permit to open the gallery regularly, Orsini said.

Meanwhile visitors can enjoy the outdoor sculptures, which Orsini curates with diversity in mind.

“That’s what makes the park so vital,” she said. “We have so many pieces that are diverse and in all materials: We have glass; we have metal; we have concrete; we have stone.”

This story was originally published June 4, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Monarch Sculpture Park near Tenino celebrates its survival."