Concerts, volunteering, photography, hiking, biking and even getting married are just a few of the things visitors to the University’s Allerton Park can take part in this summer.

The park, which is located about 28 miles west of campus, is popular with summer visitors for three reasons, said the park’s interim director Bruce Branham.

“We have three things that make the park unique,” he said. “We have 1,500 acres of natural area, which is pretty pristine. We have the formal gardens and sculptures, which are pretty unique for central Illinois. And then we have the mansion, which is kind of our business unit. We have weddings and conferences there.”

This summer, Allerton’s formal gardens will be home to “Concerts in the Park,” a series of performances by musicians of various genres taking place on the first Friday of every month through October.The next concert will take place on June 7 at 6 p.m.in the park’s Brick Wall Garden, where the The Chip McNeil Quartet will perform jazz music.

The concert series also provides one of many opportunities for volunteers to get involved at Allerton, Branham said. According to Mindy Brand, the park’s volunteer coordinator, volunteers can find work both indoors and outdoors at the park during the summer.

“We have a lot more volunteer opportunities in the summer because we can do more programs,” she said. “We have more events going on in the summer, and obviously there are people who want to work outdoors in the natural areas and the formal gardens. That stuff’s not going on in the winter.”

Informational orientations for prospective volunteers are held about once a month, depending upon the level of interest, Brand said. The next orientation will be on June 11 from 6 to 7 p.m. in the park’s visitor’s center. Volunteers are then directed to different departments of the park depending upon their interests, schedule and physical abilities. Brand said the park would like to have more University students volunteer, but the park’s distance from campus can be problematic.

“We’re really trying to get more U of I students out here, but we find one of our biggest challenges is transportation,” Brand said. “A lot of kids can’t come 30 miles to volunteer. We do have a lot of fraternities or service organizations that come out here like on a Saturday and bring out 20 to 40 people and work on bigger projects, so that’s really nice.”

Visitors can also try out Allerton’s hiking trails or bring bicycles to ride through the park. The trails can also act as a showcase for the park’s many sculptures, Branham said.

“Hiking is probably the main thing we can do out there in the natural areas,” he said. “You can hike to see some of the sculptures. ‘The Sun Singer,’ for instance, at the far west end of the park is something you really ought to see. Same with ‘The (Death of the) Last Centaur.’ That’s one of the more impressive sculptures, and the way it’s positioned is meant to be seen from the hiking trails.”

Summer is also the park’s busiest time for weddings, Branham said.

“May through October is the prime season,” he said. “There are several sites where we have outdoor ceremonies. We often use the Sunken Garden or the Brick Wall Garden or the Fu Dog Garden for outdoor weddings. You can also rent the mansion, and that’s nice because in a sense it’s like a destination wedding.”

Allerton is also a popular spot for photographers, Branham said, because it offers a variety of subjects. The park, in conjunction with The News-Gazette, even offered a photography class in March.

“It’s a great place for not only nature photography, but also the sculptures provide you with opportunities if you want to get some more art-type photography as well,” he said. “There are a lot of pictures taken at Allerton.”

Thomas Byler, a junior at Decatur’s Millikin University, said he enjoys photography and has made several trips to take photos at Allerton since first visiting the park as a high school student.

“I like to shoot photographs at Allerton because the park is gorgeous,” Byler said. “There are many interesting subjects that you can photograph ranging from the statues to the plant life. It is perfect for shooting landscape photography and portraits.

“I have a few places I really like to shoot photographs at. The pavilion at the beginning of the park is a great place. It has a very interesting staircase to take photographs in and the top of it has nice detail to add interest.”

Lauren can be reached at [email protected].

Editor’s note: A previous version of a photo caption on this article misidentified Willow Branch as the city in which the statue in the photo is located. The statue is in Allerton Park in Willow Branch Township, which is near Monticello, Ill. The Daily Illini regrets this error.