Organizational Highlights

Walking You Through What’s New

With completion of our Welcoming the World: Honoring a Legacy of Love capital campaign come changes galore—from parking to buildings to gardens and more.

Welcome Center

This 69,000-square-foot, LEED-certified, major architectural feature is driven by a dramatic attendance increase: More than 700,000 people annually now move through a space originally designed for 200,000. The Welcome Center greatly enhances the arrival, admission and orientation experience for all guests.

Covenant Learning Center

The 20,000-square-foot, LEED-certified CLC engages learners in new ways and reinforces our commitment to cultural education. The CLC promotes interactive learning, fosters creative thinking, integrates technology and supports rich educational programming.

Meijer-Shedleski Picnic Pavilion

Outdoor picnicking now has the space and beauty befitting a favorite tradition. The pavilion, with convenient parking and new restrooms, significantly expands how many guests can picnic.

Peter C. & Emajean Cook Transportation Center

Guided tram tours of our 158-acre main campus are popular with members and guests. Trams also support social and corporate events. The Cook Transportation Center offers greater covered waiting space and accessibility and a convenient restroom stop.

Frey Foundation Plaza

This plaza architecturally and functionally ties together the Welcome Center and Frederik Meijer Gardens Amphitheater entrances. It also brings more parking spaces closer to guest entries and, as an outdoor gathering site, strongly represents our horticulture and sculpture mission.

Expanded and Renovated Existing Building

Widening the BISSELL Corridor accommodates increased guest traffic and provides a larger footprint for exhibitions and greater access to our revamped Sculpture Galleries. This expansion connects the Welcome Center on two levels, creating a seamless integration enhancing guest visuals and accessibility.

Parking and Urban Gardens

An expansion and redesign doubled parking spaces within a two-minute walk of the Welcome Center. The new configuration offers more accessible parking spaces near the entrance, increases overall parking, and adds urban and rain gardens to control water runoff—honoring our commitment to be good stewards of our environment.

Frederik Meijer Gardens Amphitheater

West Michigan’s favorite outdoor music venue provides an expanded, still intimate setting where artists connect with fans on a uniquely personal level. The expansion provides increased sponsor seating and a completely new Eileen DeVries Concessions Building with added food and beverage capacity, new artist greenrooms, and restrooms outside the venue for guests waiting in line.

Gardens and Sculpture

Striking changes in our footprint meant moving or re-creating existing gardens, among them the Volunteer Tribute Garden, Tassell-Wisner Bottrall English Perennial Garden and Ram's Garden. Existing and newly acquired sculptures are artfully sited according to our mission. These changes offer guests a new aesthetic and fulfill our Always New promise.

New Endowment Fund

The Welcoming the World: Honoring a Legacy of Love Endowment supports our financial health, ensuring Meijer Gardens brings joy to as many guests as possible, as long as possible. Our facilities expansions require additional endowment funds to provide adequate support and our continuing viability and sustainability—important in honoring Fred and Lena Meijer’s enduring legacy.

Top: View of the Welcome Center from the redesigned TassellWisner-Bottrall English Perennial Garden. Left: Kirstin Volkening, right: Nic Sagodic. Bottom: View of the Welcome Center from the redesigned parking lot. Left: Kirstin Volkening, right: Tony Norkus.

Double Take: Mel Chin & Elizabeth Turk

November 18, 2022–March 26, 2023

Mel Chin. Cabinet of Craving. 2011. Oak, bone ware, silver tray, steel, 9 x 9 x 14 feet.

Elizabeth Turk. Echoes of Extinction series. 2020. Sound columns in anodized aluminum, height 73-83 inches.

This upcoming exhibition unites the work of two MacArthur Fellow recipients—Mel Chin and Elizabeth Turk—whose distinctive sculpture engages a number of shared concerns. Together, their creative explorations offer fresh takes on pressing issues including environmental hazards, endangered species, memorialization, and lost or hidden histories.

Grand Rapids, MI 49525 1000 East Beltline Avenue NE

agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Michigan Arts and Culture Council, a partner Meijer Gardens receives funding from the

admission of $2 per person for up to four people. for All. Show your EBT/WIC card for a reduced Meijer Gardens is a proud member of Museums Sunday Saturday

9 am–11 am 8 am–9 am Peter M. Wege Library open at regular hours. Keeler Gift Shop, James & Shirley Balk Café and Gardens is open early to members. The DeVos- The first full weekend of each month, Meijer Sunday Monday–Saturday Tuesday

11 am–5 pm 9 am–5 pm 9 am–9 pm

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