Cleveland Museum of Art - Wade Park

Wade Park

Wade Park includes an outdoor gallery displaying part of the museum's holdings in the Wade Park Fine Arts Garden. The bulk of this collection is located between the original 1916 main entrance to the building and the lagoon. Highlights of the public sculpture include the large cast of Chester Beach's 1927 Fountain of the Waters; a monument to the Polish expatriate and American Revolutionary War-hero Tadeusz Kościuszko; and the 1928 bronze statuary sundial by Frank Jirouch, Night Passing the Earth to Day, which sits across Wade Lagoon from the museum, near the park's entrance on Euclid Avenue. Rodin's The Thinker sits atop of the museums main staircase, and has a unique but troubled history. Partially destroyed in a 1970 bombing (allegedly by The Weathermen), the statue has been left in its unrestored condition. The reasoning for not repairing it stems from the involvement of Rodin in its original casting and the damage—which is notated on the plaque mounted at the base of the statue's pedestal— has come to define the casting as unique among the more than twenty original large castings.