An archival photo of the museum with the garden's stone pond below.
An archive view of the museum from below.
An image of founder Jacques Marchais on opening day: October 5, 1947.
Tibetan prayer flags grace today's garden.
A large white marble sculpture is a main attraction.
The sculpture sits for a visiting artist.
of

The garden at Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art

The museum's garden offers a tranquil escape
Type: 
Produced By
Author name: 
AnnMarie Marano

This week's featured outdoor space is an old favorite of the Spaces' edit team. It's the Samadhi garden at The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art in Staten Island.

This calming sanctuary pre-dates even the museum building itself, as Jacques Marchais started constructing it when she moved to the property in 1921. A lover of Asian philosophy and Buddhism, she wanted a retreat space for herself and her friends to get away from "it all." But according to museum curator Sarah Johnson, it wasn't until 1927 that she started heavily collecting Tibetan artifacts. And in 1933 upon attending the Chicago World's Fair and seeing a replica of the Golden Temple of Jehol, that gave her the inspiration to open her own gallery, which was originally on the Upper East Side. Eventually she was able to build today's structure on Staten Island and integrated the earlier gardens into the landscape of the museum. It opened in 1947.

Due to some of the property being sold, some of the landscape no longer belongs to the museum. But Marchais' East side garden remains, which surrounds the museum and library. Johnson says the group hopes to re-aquire key properties, in order to put the space back together the way Marchais had originally intended.

"People come to reflect and meditate," says Johnson of today's museum garden. "In years past the gardens were just a pretty place surrounding the museum but her original idea was for the gardens to be integral to her business." Which they are:

Tai Chi classes are offered on Saturdays in the garden, and other museum events take place there as well, such as their annual Tibetan festival. It is also home to some stone sculptures that Marchais herself created, as well as some Tibetan prayer flags.

The property was listed in 2009 on the New York State and National Register of historic places. This year, the museum will take bids on a cultural landscape survey they hope to conduct in order to properly restore the entire site to its peak in the coming years.

"Another hope is to one day use part of the gardens to feature Himalayan plants and use it as an educational space as well, and back that up with info on the Web site for people interested in horticulture and gardening," says Johnson. This sets it (the museum) apart from other Asian collections. The garden adds a nice layer to the viewing of the art."