The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Gardenfest at Griswold
10-day celebration features exhibits, lectures, family activities Old Lyme » The eighth annual GardenFest at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme is a ten-day celebration of the site’s historic gardens featuring special events, displays, demonstration
There is beauty inside and outside of the Florence Griswold Museum this summer. This year’s exhibition provides the perfect accompaniment to the Museum’s historic landscape, gardens, and the activities surrounding GardenFest. Flora/Fauna: The Naturalist Impulse in American Art features 101 works surveying the history of artist-naturalists and environmentally-conscious artists in America from the 19th through the mid-20th centuries. The galleries will be filled with exceptional works by artists such as Titian Ramsay Peale, John James Audubon, Martin Johnson Heade, and Roger Tory Peterson.
Two additional three-day exhibits make June 9-11 an even more special time to visit. For Blooms with a View: A Display of Art and Flowers, floral artists create arrangements that interpret artwork, playing off colors, lines, shapes, and subject matter. Each display reflects its inspiration in masterful ways. This year, designers not only find inspiration in the works in the special exhibition, Flora/Fauna, but for the first time ever use the impressionist masterpieces in the Florence Griswold House as well. Like Blooms with a View, The Botanical Art of Curly Lieber complements the naturalist art found in the Flora/Fauna exhibition.
Some years ago, horticultural designer Curly Lieber turned her keen eye for the natural world towards the passionate study of botanical art and illustration. This small exhibit of her work exemplifies the way contemporary artists continue the pursuit of capturing nature with scientific accuracy. Lieber uses a fine brush (often with just one or two hairs) to paint as many as 30 layers of watercolor on
natural calf skin vellum or paper to achieve the exquisite detail and translucency of her work. Blooms with a View and The Botanical Art of Curly Lieber are included with Museum admission.
Flora/Fauna: The Naturalist Impulse in American Art is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue authored by the exhibition’s curator, Jennifer Stettler Parsons, Ph.D., with additional essays by Ellery Foutch, Ph.D. (Middlebury College), and Amy Kurtz Lansing (Florence Griswold Museum). Copies of the catalogue are available from the Museum’s website (www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org) or at the Museum’s Shop. For related programming see FlorenceGriswoldMuseum.org. The exhibition has been made possible with the generous support of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, Bank of America, the Rudolph and John Dirks Fund of the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, the Nika P. Thayer Exhibition and Publication Fund, and the Connecticut Office of the Arts. Additional support has been generously provided by a group of individual donors that are helping to advance the Museum’s mission through special exhibitions.
Family Nature Show: Colors and Patterns of the Animal Kingdom, Saturday, June 10, 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Animal Embassy, Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Specialists demonstrate how vibrant colors and patterns found in the Animal Kingdom have served as inspiration to artists throughout history. Coloration aids animal survival in their habitats by sending a warning to potential predators, attracting a mate, and regulating an animal’s temperature. This event is free with Museum admission, and Visitors 12 and under are always free!
Drop-In Gardenfest Art Event: Mini Masterpiece Pots, Sunday, June 11, 1-4:30 p.m. Visitors decorate small terra-cotta pots with paint, gems, and more. This event is free with Museum admission. And Visitors 12 and under are always free.
Gardening in Early New England, Wednesday, June 14, 2 p.m. Join Leslie Evans, Historian and Museum Director for the Avery-Copp House Museum in Groton, CT for a look at plants and gardening practices from the Colonial era through the early 20th century. Topics include gardening by European colonists in the 17th century, the impact of exotic plants, and changes in gardening styles during the Victorian era. Fee: $7
Gallery Talk: The ArtistNaturalist in Early America, Thursday, June 15, 11 a.m. Join Curator Jenny Parsons for a talk discussing America’s pioneering artist-naturalists like William Bartram, the Peale family, Alexander Wilson, and John James Audubon. Learn more about their work in Philadelphia and how the study of natural history in early America was often a ‘family affair.’ This event is free with Museum admission.
Gardening as if the World Depends on Us, Sunday, June 18 (Father’s Day), 2 p.m. Garden author Tovah Martin discusses how, just by being a gardener, you are already making a big difference. This lecture is filled with ideas from gardeners who rallied their acreage in backyards large and small. With a trowel in hand, you can save the earth. Fee: $12
Drop-In Gardenfest Art Event: Father’s Day Garden Cards, Sunday, June 18, 1-4:30 p.m. Visitors can create a design for dad (or others) on foam before printing the image with bright inks on colorful cardstock. This event is free with Museum admission. And visitors 12 and under are always free.
Garden lovers are invited to dine on the veranda overlooking the Lieutenant River at Café Flo. The Café is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11:30am to 2:30pm and from 1 to 3:30pm on Sundays. Menu items are garden-fresh and family friendly.
GardenFest celebrates the Museum’s historic gardens and orchard that are the subject of so many paintings by the Lyme Art Colony artists. Landscape Historian Sheila Wertheimer guided the Museum in the restoration of the gardens and site to its appearance circa 1910. Miss Florence’s garden can be characterized by what is referred to today as a “grandmother’s garden” in which masses of flowers were informally arranged in bordered beds close to home. Varieties of hollyhock, iris, foxglove, heliotrope, phlox, cranesbill, and day lilies were among the many perennials that made up her garden. The Museum is located on a 13acre site in the historic village of Old Lyme at 96 Lyme Street, exit 70 off I-95. Admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors, $8 students, and free to children 12 and under. For more information, visit FlorenceGriswoldMuseum.org or call 860-4345542 x 111.
Connecticut’s Historic Gardens announces the twelfth annual Connecticut’s Historic Garden Day, Sunday, June 25. These 15 delightful places, scattered throughout Connecticut, offer visitors an opportunity to explore many types of gardens while their historic homes further delight and educate. A variety of special events and activities are planned for the day. Hours, activities, and prices vary by location. At the Florence Griswold Museum, besides strolling the historic landscape and gardens, visitors are invited to pick up supplies to paint in Miss Florence’s garden or down by the Lieutenant River. The can also enjoy the Museum’s Art Cart, filled with outdoor activities that encourage exploration of the historic landscape. Outdoor activities are free from 12 to 4 p.m. Museum admission applies to House and Gallery, $10 adults, $9 seniors, $8 students and children 12 and under are free. The House and Gallery are open from 1-5 p.m.