Lehigh Millennium Folk Arch and Art Enclave, Bethlehem

About Lehigh Millennium Folk Arch and Art Enclave

The Lehigh Millennium Folk Arch and Art Enclave is an outdoor sculpture garden on Lehigh University's campus in Bethlehem featuring unconventional artworks by self-taught artists. Visitors walk a gravel road through the grounds encountering increasingly elaborate pieces as they ascend the hillside. The enclave's centerpiece is the Millennium Folk Arch, a large sculpture constructed in 1999 from an art course called "Raw Vision: Creativity and Ecstasy in the Work of Shamans, Mystics, and Artist Outsiders." The arch is densely embedded with found objects including PEZ dispensers, computer motherboards, bottle caps, and glass stones arranged into intricate patterns. Faces bulge from the hardened rock surface while mirrors and gems catch the light. Along the pathway, visitors encounter a gem-encrusted boulder, a Chinese bridge crossing a small creek, graffiti-covered trees with colorful polka dots and melting heart sculptures, and steel rods with jars and bottles fastened to their tops. The garden suits those interested in outsider art and unconventional visual experiences.