Posted:
1/22/2019 |
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Date: January 22, 2019
Contact: Missouri Botanical Garden Public Relations Dept.
Phone: (314) 577-0286 (media use only)
Email: cmartin@mobot.org (media use only)
For Immediate Release
BOTANICAL ART EXHIBIT TO OPEN AT GARDEN’S SACHS MUSEUM
Missouri Botanical Garden is the first to showcase exhibition after its Washington D.C. debut
WHAT: Botanical Art Worldwide: America’s Flora
WHEN: February 1 – May 5, 2019
WHERE: Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd., south St. Louis
COST: Included with Garden admission, free for Garden members.
INFO: www.USBG.gov/AmericasFlora
(ST. LOUIS): Botanical Art Worldwide: America’s Flora will open at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum on February 1.
The exhibit features 46 botanical artworks of America’s native plants. The exhibition, a collaborative project of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) and United States Botanic Garden, first opened at the USBG in May 2018. The Missouri Botanical Garden is the first venue to showcase the display after its Washington D.C. debut.
ASBA artists worked over four years on the project, creating 240 images of U.S. native plants, from which 46 were selected by jurors. Plants from around the country are featured, including saguaro cactus from the desert southwest, big leaf maple from the west coast, bottlebrush buckeye from the eastern seaboard, and bloodroot, spanning the Midwestern and eastern U.S. Familiar plants are shown, including sunflowers and violets, as well as rare species such as lady’s slipper orchids. Artists worked in a variety of media to portray their subjects, many in watercolor, but also in oil, colored pencil, pen and ink, and etching.
Botanical Art Worldwide: America’s Flora is part of a worldwide project, with national exhibitions simultaneously on view at cultural institutions in 25 countries on six continents. Each exhibition features original contemporary artwork of its country’s native plants portrayed by resident artists.
For detailed information about the exhibit, a list of artists and plants depicted, and stories behind the art, visit https://asba-art.org/exhibitions/botanical-art-worldwide. Further information can be found at: www.USBG.gov/AmericasFlora.
While the exhibit is at the Sachs Museum, the Garden will also showcase items from its own collections to complement the botanical artwork, including five milkweed specimens from its herbarium. These specimens will be in the smaller south gallery and will highlight Garden scientists’ work to help save native milkweed plants.
Another display will feature a selection of mosses that are part of Garden Scientist Bruce Allen’s Moss Flora of Central America. Allen is the author and illustrator of the work, which is a culmination of 27-year project. The display will feature both moss specimens and illustrations that are published in the book.
Additionally, a collection of ceramic plates decorated with botanical illustrations, lent to the Garden by a private collector, will be on display. The collector, Jeanne Zarucchi, will give a talk about the collection in late April.
The Missouri Botanical Garden is located at 4344 Shaw Blvd. in south St. Louis, accessible from Interstate 44 at the Vandeventer exit and from Interstate 64 at the Kingshighway North and South exit. Free parking is available on site and two blocks west at the corner of Shaw and Vandeventer.
For general information, visit www.mobot.org or call (314) 577 5100 (toll-free, 1 800 642 8842).
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The Missouri Botanical Garden’s mission is “to discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life.” Today, 160 years after opening, the Missouri Botanical Garden is a National Historic Landmark and a center for science, conservation, education and horticultural display.