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The PaTron sainT A pioneer of one-stop shopping with his family's Meijer hypermarket chain, Frederik Meijer and his wife Lena helped the West Michigan Horticultural Society establish a cultural landmark in Grand Rapids in 1995. When The American Horse was installed at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park four years later, the landmark was 118 acres of wetlands, woodlands and gardens that contained more than 80 contemporary bronzes. Today the main campus has expanded to 158 acres and is home to works by both internationally renowned names and American and local artists. "The Horse greatly expanded Fred's perspective on art," said Joe Becherer, chief curator of the park. "He was captivated with the story and Leonardo, and he appreciated Nina's process and her point of view, and his personal view of the art world expanded as a result of The American Horse." The same year the Horse was unveiled in Grand Rapids, Meijer an- nounced his intentions of curating a world-class sculpture collection. "From that point in time," Becherer recalled, "the major, major pieces started coming. The Moores, Rodins, di Suveros. They came in very short order." "There are very few patrons around," said Nina Akamu after completing The American Horse. "Fred and his wife Lena are true patrons in the big sense. They are bigger than life as people, and they leave a wonderful legacy in art, in the way they lead their life, in the environment they have created at the Gardens." PHoTo CourTeSy of MeIjer GarDenS Since opening in 1995, the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park have developed into one of Michigan's most beautiful cultural destinations. madrid ii, eventually surfaced in that city's Biblioteca nacional in 1966, and another now belongs to the British royal Collection. About 6,000 sheets of his notes survive from an estimated 13,000. dent, an amateur artist, collector and renaissance aficionado, was instantly enthralled when he read the story of the horse in the sept. 1977 issue of National Geographic, and he set out to devote the remainder of his life to bringing da Vinci's plans to life at last. e master, dent believed, had left him an immac- ulate road map for a process that still hadn't been tack- led in the 500 years since; among the drawings and notes in the artist's journal were a full 20 pages of instructions on the casting of such a massive equine shape, standing on only two legs. dent was determined: he could present to milan the 24-foot horse da Vinci had envisioned. And so he spent the next 17 years finding backers, raising money and fostering excitement in the art world for the epic endeavor. hank meijer, the son of midwest grocery magnates fred and lena meijer, was among the believers in dent's goal, and he soon enlisted his parents in the movement as well. But in 1994, with the project only in mid-swing, dent died, having not even completed his model. A year later, the members of dent's fundraising and c h r o n o f h o r s e . c o m ja n ua r y/ f e b r ua r y 2 015 75

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