Art on the Trails
The Trails at the MSV is Virginia’s largest art park. Along with providing more than three miles through fields, woods, and wetlands, The Trails at the MSV combines the experience of an art gallery with the setting of an outdoor park. The 90-acre park includes sculpture, art installations, and landscape features that make The Trails at the MSV a one-of-a-kind outdoor art experience.
Current art installations include sculpture, an outdoor photography display, and an interactive mobile in a renovated silo. Recent additions include a treehouse and a sculpture of Willa Cather, novelist and Shenandoah Valley native.
Virginia’s largest art park, The Trails at the MSV, features a variety of sculpture and art installations. Sculpture on the Trails ranges from a figurative bronze statue of novelist and Shenandoah Valley native Willa Cather to an abstract steel work by renowned artist Beverly Pepper (1922–2020).
With the support of generous donors, the MSV is actively growing its collection of outdoor works found in the park.
Along with art installations, engaging landscape features are part of The Trails at the MSV. Highlights include a standing stone circle, a fieldstone ha-ha (sunken stone fence), a grouping of 10 hills or “picnic mounds” ranging in height from 10 to 15 feet, an allée with 46 recently planted oak and hickory trees, a treehouse built around a walnut tree, and—near a renovated 1950s-era silo—a garden with seasonal plantings and an antique tractor.
Installations ranging from an interactive mobile hanging inside a renovated 1950s-era silo to an outdoor photography exhibition showcasing the famed Appalachian Trail make a visit to The Trails at the MSV a one-of-a-kind outdoor experience.
The Trails at the MSV is a 90-acre art park on the grounds of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. Notable sculpture, art installations, and landscape features are highlighted on the Trails map.
A free admission-art park, The Trails at the MSV is open daily from 7 a.m. to dusk.