Museum Sculpture Garden

(Click the photo above for an audio tour)

The University Museum boasts a beautiful outdoor sculpture garden on the west side of the very northern end of Faner Hall, just outside the Mitchell Gallery. Artists represented in the garden include Aldon Addington, Richard Hunt, Dan Johnson, and Ernest Trova. Also in this location is the lovely Japanese Garden, the Kumakura Garden, and the Dorothy Morris Garden. SIU's campus has been recognized for its natural beauty. The most striking natural feature of the university is Campus Lake, formerly Thompson Lake, which is a 40-acre spring lake at the southwest end of the campus. The lake has been closed to swimmers for several years due to health concerns but remains open to canoes and kayaks. In addition to this, the lake is ringed by a 2-mile walking trail popular with joggers and a large frisbee golf course. At the center of the campus is Thompson Woods, an area of natural woodlands crisscrossed by walking paths. The Thompson Woods is a completely natural area that was given to the university as a gift from the eponymous Thompson family, which once owned the woods and surrounding campus areas. The Dorothy Morris Garden, Kumakura Garden, and Sculpture Garden are a collection of small gardens behind Faner Hall. They include a tea house, a fish pond, and numerous student-created sculptures. The gardens are located roughly on the former site of the home of Dorothy and Delyte Morris, SIU's eighth president.