Flowers for Winnipeg
Gallery hosts exhibition combining art and horticulture
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/04/2017 (2532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Where have all the flowers gone? They’re at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, apparently.
The gallery hosts Art in Bloom, which kicked off Thursday night with a preview gala and runs until Sunday. The event, which like a tulip is expected to blossom every second spring in the city, includes 61 pieces of art from the WAG’s collection that have received floral interpretations by volunteers.
The works and flowers remain on display from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and admission is included with your gallery ticket.
A major part of the display is a giant floral wall display that’s been built inside the gallery’s Eckhardt Hall. It stands more than five metres tall, is 13 metres wide and will include 20,000 stems, says Hazel Borys, who is co-chairing the event along with Hennie Corrin.
The event should bring a sense of awe to gallery visitors, Borys says.
“We spend a lot of time what contributes to wellbeing,” says Borys, who is president of the urban design firm Placemakers as a city planner and is also the wife of gallery CEO Stephen Borys. “Awe is one of the most essential to wellbeing and three of the things that contribute to awe are nature, art and our belief system… Art in Bloom combines two out of those three awe-inspiring experiences.”
The Art in Bloom concept is modelled after similar events that have run for decades at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The WAG held Art in Bloom events twice in the 1990s prior to replanting the seeds again in 2017.
The gallery has come up with a wide selection of art that go back as early as the 15th century all the way to modern works. Then it’s up to the interpreters to arrange the flowers in the way they like. Each display will have a description that will provide hints to viewers why flowers are arranged as they are, Borys says.
“It’s a community-based event that’s not really a fundraiser, it’s more of a friend-raiser,” she says. “We’re asking people to come in and enjoy the flowers and help celebrate spring.”
Borys says she’s going to have 125 roses as part of her floral installation, but it’s up to each interpreter how many and what types of flowers they wish to use.
“We’re hoping it helps people look at (the artworks) in a different way,” Borys says
There are safeguards being used to prevent any damage to the artworks. The flowers will be sprayed with a chemical to prevent any insects from affecting the artworks and the arrangements will be inspected to ensure the flowers can’t tip over and damage a piece.
“We have an extensive contract that each of the 61 interpreters signed with the museum to safeguard the paintings,” Borys says. “We take this quite seriously.”
alan.small@freepress.mb.ca Twitter:@AlanDSmall
Alan Small
Reporter
Alan Small has been a journalist at the Free Press for more than 22 years in a variety of roles, the latest being a reporter in the Arts and Life section.