Arts in the Parks Bike Tour was a new art feature on the Wildwood island in 2022. Even though they call it a "bike tour" you could certainly do a "walking tour" if you split it up over the course of 2 days. The tour features beautiful sculptures by the artist Seward Johnson spread out across several open-to-the-public parks in Wildwood.
We're big fans of outdoor wall murals and street art, so we checked it out on a recent trip down to the Jersey Shore. We happened to be down there for the Hurricane Ian storm that hit Florida and South Carolina, so we had heavy rain and winds for 5 out of 7 days that we were there. Hence, the not fantastic photographs.
In total there are 7 scultpures for you to check out. Each one has a plaque that gives you the name of the sculpture, the artist's name, and the copyright date. There's a website you can visit to learn more called SewardJohnsonAltelier.org. Until this event, we had never heard of the artist, so it was nice to discover someone new (although he's deceased, March 10th, 2020). You can connect with the foundation on Facebook for more information.
Each scultpure that we viewed was incredible! You need to walk the entire way around it to see alll 360 degrees of it. We loved that they each featured a different theme...like a Mother reading a book to a child, a gentleman playing a violin during a street concert, a navy sailor embracing his lady, a gentleman playing fetch with his dog, and a father (soldier) being welcomed home by his child. All are beautifully interpreted.
We found some additional information about the Arts in the Parks Bike Tour on the Wildwoods by the Sea website that you can check out for a map of each scultpure's location. Some of them had a sign up beside them that you could scan the QR Code for additional information on the exhibit. (some were completely missing).
During our trip and the horrible weather we were able to see 5 of the 7 sculptures which I'm featuring in my post today. Please allow all of the photographs to load. We're not sure if this is just a one-time summer thing or if they'll be there again next year. If so, we'll get better photographs weather-permitting.
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