The Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens on the PepsiCo headquarters in Purchase, which have been closed since December 2012, will be open to the public in as little as eight months, according to PepsiCo officials.
Aurora Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for PepsiCo, told the Review that the Kendall Gardens would be reopened in March 2017, but declined to further discuss the exhibit’s reopening.
The exhibit features the works of Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, George Segal, Arnoldo Palmodoro and Auguste Rodin, among other prominent 20th-century sculptors.
But those sculptures have been kept from public access since late 2012, before the soft drink company temporarily closed its headquarters for $240 million in campus renovations, which the company entitled “Project Renew.” The project was completed in June of this year.
Janet Langsam, CEO of ArtsWestchester, a nonprofit organization which works to bring art to the public, said there had been concern among the Westchester arts community over the garden’s closure.
But that concern appears to have been quelled. “It’s a relief,” Langsam said. “This is a stunning, one-of-a-kind collection. It’s a living history of 20th-century monumental sculptures and it’s a wonderful example of a gift to the public.”
In a statement, she also underscored the importance of keeping places with “great artistic significance” open to the public.
PepsiCo moved its headquarters from 500 Park Ave. in Manhattan to 700 Anderson Hill Road in Purchase in 1970. When Donald M. Kendall, then PepsiCo’s CEO, moved the company to Purchase, he said he hoped the property would become the site of “one of the greatest modern sculpture exhibits in the world,” according to a brief published in The New York Times that year.
The sculpture garden that now bears Kendall’s name consists of 45 modern art sculptures from the 20th century spread across 168 acres on the PepsiCo property.
