Michigan

This Michigan sculpture park and garden is the best in the country. Where you should visit

Published

1 year ago

February 26, 2025

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This Michigan sculpture park and garden is the best in the country. Where you should visit

The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids has been named the Best Sculpture Park in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for the third year in a row.
The park features more than 200 sculptures across its 158 acres, including a five-floor, 15,000-square-foot tropical conservatory.
Nominees for the 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards are selected by a panel of industry experts and then voted on by the public.

The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park was named the Best Sculpture Park in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for the third consecutive year.

“Winning this award for the third year in a row is an extraordinary honor and a testament to the unwavering passion of our volunteers, members, guests, donors and staff,” said Charles Burke, president & CEO of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, in a news release.

“This award underscores the importance of the gift of Meijer Gardens from Fred and Lena Meijer and our commitment to providing a world-class experience for 30 years that seamlessly blends art, culture and nature. We are deeply grateful for this recognition and look forward to inspiring our guests for years to come.”

What are the Frederick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park?

Home to the largest tropical conservatory in Michigan, the 158-acre main campus in Grand Rapids hosts a multitude of outdoor gardens and a five-floor, 15,000-square-foot tropical conservatory.

The permanent sculpture collection features more than 200 pieces, many of which are displayed in the sculpture park. The museum also features rotating exhibits.

How can I visit the gardens and sculpture park?

The site is open seven days a week, except for Mondays in January, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day, and New Year’s Eve and Day.

It is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Tickets for children 3 to 13 are $11, adults up to 64 are $22, seniors are $17, students with ID are $16. The venue does not accept cash.

What are the top 10 Best Sculpture Parks?

The top 10 destinations include:

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park (Grand Rapids)
Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park (Wilson, North Carolina)
Brookgreen Gardens (Murrells Inlet, South Carolina)
Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park (Hamilton, Ohio)
Grounds For Sculpture (Hamilton, New Jersey)
Laumeier Sculpture Park (St. Louis, Missouri)
San Juan Islands Sculpture Park (Friday Harbor, Washington)
Griffis Sculpture Park (East Otto, New York)
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Storm King Art Center (New Windsor, New York)

Who does the rankings?

The USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards highlights the very best travel, food, drink and lifestyle.

The panel includes industry experts who nominate their favorite attractions across a range of categories. Editors then vet the nominations and set a final list of nominees to be presented to the voting public.

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Michigan

Michigan basketball has simple objective for 2026 Big Ten Tournament

Published

3 hours ago

March 13, 2026

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Michigan basketball has simple objective for 2026 Big Ten Tournament

In 2025, the Big Ten Tournament was hugely important for Michigan basketball.

The Wolverines had lost four of their final six regular-season games, falling out of the Big Ten title race in Year 1 of the Dusty May era. Putting together a competent weekend in Indianapolis was critical to take some momentum into the NCAA Tournament.

2026, however, is different. No. 3 Michigan (29-2, 19-1 Big Ten) was arguably the best team in the nation this season, dominating the Big Ten en route to a league-record 19 wins in conference play and a four-game gap between it and the next closest team.

Michigan has not shied away from discussing its ultimate goal − the national championship − and the Big Ten regular-season title was a key part of that. But what about the league tournament – a potential three games of distraction before the real postseason begins?

“Sometimes there are coaches that discredit the Big Ten tournament,” May said this week. “Whoever wins this tournament this year in what we think is the best league in the country, then we’re going to have a lot of respect for them and the job they did.

“Because whether they win three games in three days or four games in four days against really good teams, it’s not that simple.”

Michigan intends to be that team. Nimari Burnett demonstrated that this week with a social media post featuring pictures of him cutting down the net in Ann Arbor after U-M’s 90-80 senior day win over MSU, and another with the Big Ten trophy.

His caption? “1 of 3,” with an emoji of a trophy next to it.

Fellow senior Will Tschetter had the net hanging around his neck on Sunday following the final home game of a five-year career spent entirely in maize and blue. He has been on teams that needed Big Ten tourney runs − like the 2022-23 team that found itself on the wrong side of the bubble after an early loss to Rutgers − but just because U-M has a 1-seed locked up, he won’t mail it in at United Center.

“Our next goal is the Big Ten Tournament,” he said. “We’re turning our head to that, that’s one of our three [primary goals] and so we’ve got to make sure we capitalize on that.”

U-M’s postseason begins on Friday (noon, Big Ten Network) with a third matchup with rival Ohio State, a 72-69 winner over Iowa on Thursday in the third round of the Big Ten tourney. The Wolverines already have two wins over the Buckeyes: a 12-pointer in Ann Arbor in January in which they closed with a 24-12 run, and a 21-pointer in Columbus in February. This will be the eighth season in which U-M and OSU meet three times; the Wolverines have never beaten the Buckeyes three times in a season.

Former Buckeye Roddy Gayle Jr. has taken his game up a level in March − he had a game-clinching block and steal in a tight win over Iowa last week before scoring 15 points (his second-best total this season) against the Spartans last weekend.

Asked about grand goals such as April’s Final Four in Indianapolis, he didn’t even want to look past the next task on U-M’s schedule.

“Not looking too far past the opponent in front of us, because we know how easy it is for there to be an upset and how frequent it is to be upset, especially in March,” he said. “Being able to play our best ball, that’s something that we’ve been doing and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Michigan will be a 1-seed when the NCAA field of 69 is unveiled Sunday, no matter what happens in the Windy City. Perhaps the Wolverines’ primary focus should be finding new rotations without the services of L.J. Cason (out for the season with an ACL tear) and making sure no one is too worn down for the tournament that truly matters.

And yet, as May has said time and time again, his team is a group of competitors. Playing at half-speed or without full conviction simply isn’t an option.

Once the ball is tipped, his team has one simple objective.

“We’re going to go compete, we’re going to try to win,” May said. “We’re never going to go to Chicago … and not give our best and compete to win.”

Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

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With gas prices rising in Michigan and U.S., what other items could rise amid war with Iran?

Published

1 day ago

March 12, 2026

Press Room

With gas prices rising in Michigan and U.S., what other items could rise amid war with Iran?

Drivers across Metro Detroit continue to see higher prices at the pump. And the escalating war in Iran is worrying some that higher prices across the board will soon follow.

“It’s very frustrating because I don’t like these gas prices, and I want them to go down. I hate the war, and I want the war to end,” said Aywon Williams from Detroit.

It now costs an average of over $3.60 for Michigan’s motorists for a gallon of gas, which is around 20% higher than it was just 12 days ago when the war in Iran began.

But experts like Kevin Ketels, an associate professor in Global Supply Chain Management at Wayne State, say that the costs of food, housing, clothing, and more should soon be, if not already, on the rise as well.

“So there is a very large ripple effect, you simply can’t avoid it when 20 percent of the World’s crude oil comes out of this part of the world,” said Ketels.

Ketels says if crude oil’s price continues to climb because of the Strait of Hormuz being under attack, so will the prices of most widely used products, because of the need for crude oil, which keeps equipment, delivery trucks, airplanes, and more running.

“And that cost is almost immediately being felt by us, by everyone globally and it will be reflected in higher prices in anything that requires transportation,” Ketels said.

Theo Pinson from Southfield told CBS Detroit he’s seen increasing costs all over the place.

“Food and everything, I just came over here from Meijer, and everything is sky high,” Pinson said.

It’s uncertain when the war against Iran will end, but experts say it will take time to smooth out supply chain disruptions, even when it does, so price increases could persist for weeks or even months.

“What’s had to happen in the Middle East is that they’ve had to shut down production because there’s nowhere to put all the oil, so when you shut down production, it takes time to get everything restarted,” said Ketels.

President Trump has said that rising gas prices are a very small price to pay for the U.S., the world and peace.