Local beauty, talent showcased
FORT BRAGG >> This year’s Art in the Gardens was a multi-day affair, encouraging locals and visitors alike to experience the natural beauty and artistic talent of the North Coast.
This year, Art in the Gardens — one of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens’ main fundraisers — was held over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 6-8. Typically, the fundraiser event is just one day, but this year saw added workshops and festivities throughout the weekend. A “Saturday Soiree” with live music and catered food was $100 per ticket and sold out very quickly, organizers said.
However, the resurgence of the Coronavirus and concerns over the Delta variant nearly put a damper on the event.
“We wanted to provide music and art and activities in the beautiful gardens in summer,” said the Gardens’ Executive Director Molly Barker.
“We thought that if we spread it out over three days, we might be able to accept more people in.”
The Saturday Soiree was more like the fundraiser’s typical, solo event, Barker said. The idea was to help people feel a little more free and happy after a year and a half stuck inside.
The workshops and festivities were new this year, but several quickly sold out.
Barker said it was important to the staff and board to keep the workshops at the price of admission so that everyone could enjoy the offerings.
Workshops included Kid’s Painting for ages 9 and up, a “Paint & Sip” event, paper collage making, nature journaling and pine needle basket weaving.
Randi and Will Roberts attended the soiree this year because it’s their tradition to support the Gardens, they said.
“It’s different this year, very different,” Randi Roberts said. “We can come to
the garden any old time, but we still want to support it, and this year, this was the way to really support it, coming to the soiree.”
Will Roberts said he really enjoys being a member just to kick back and watch the children and dogs playing on the lawns in the sunshine.
“It just feels so naturally Northern California,” he said.
Linda Brown, a lifetime member and one of the cofounders of the Art in the Gardens event nearly three decades ago, said she remembers the very first year.
“We had 25-30 artists
and they came with pegboard and plywood to hang their art on,” she said. “You couldn’t see the garden!”
Some of the artists this year included Button Quinn, Cat Francisco Photography, Granite Mountain Arts, Hilary Eddy, Hoppe Holzkreation, Krista Flood Glass Studio, Metal Muse Studio, Patrick Kelley, Peter Bailey Designs, Pícaro Gordo Woodcuts, Sandy Oppenheimer, Sev Ikes and Shanti Benoit, Viking Pottery and ZBO’S Art.
Musicians included Jan
Kessner, Megan Miller and the Meta, Back Porch Trio, the Mendocino Dance Project, The Mendonesians, Chuck T and Mama Grows Funk.
“We really learned over the course of the pandemic
that the garden is beautiful, but it’s not a garden without people,” Barker said. “It’s just a landscape.”