Spring Art Series

It was a long haul, but we hosted a lot of wonderful programs of art + music over the ten years leading up to the backhoes arriving to begin construction.  We got folks to come out to the Conservatory and imagine the potential of what might be.

The Friends’ work at Conservatory over the last 10 years flipped, in productive ways, the 1% for art model—asking what would happen if not only the last, but the first, 1-2%, even 10% of time, attention, and dollars were devoted to art. How would our understanding of the site and our project change? What new insights might be in the offing? We are in the camp of creativity as a welcoming site—art at its best challenges its viewers in a way that makes space for others.  Our design for the restored Conservatory + Garden reflects for the better all that we learned through this experiment.

Art Classes included: Sun Printing, Pinhole Photography, Urban Landscapes, Abstracting Nature, Botanical Illustration, Watercolor, Bookmaking, Giant Puppet Making, and a collaborative performance piece Ambulatory Gambit.  Several of these offerings were grouped together as part of a Spring Art Series in April and May, 2001.  We thank all of the artists who understood, early on, the magic of the place.