Reynolda House Museum of American Art will host a new exhibition titled “Heroes of Horticulture” July 31 through September 27, 2009 in the museum’s Babcock Wing gallery. The exhibition, organized by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in collaboration with The Cultural Landscape Foundation of Washington, D.C., includes photographs of magnificent trees and plantings, some of which are more than 100 years old.
In the summer of 2007, a curatorial team from George Eastman House invited 12 photographers to photograph the sites designated by the Cultural Landscape Foundation as their 2007 Landslide landscapes. Landslide landscapes are horticultural sites that have stood steadfast in the face of development. The photographs made for this project record and illustrate the astonishing specimen trees, groves, allées, and plant collections throughout the United States that the Cultural Landscape Foundation deems unique and character-defining to a region. They also represent collaborations with artists that have yielded compelling interpretations of extraordinary places.
Hosting “Heroes of Horticulture” presents a unique opportunity for Reynolda House to exhibit archival photographs and landscape architectural plans of the early Reynolda landscape in concert with these national living landmarks. The archival images are the work of prominent Philadelphia landscape architect and photographer Thomas Sears, who was engaged by both Katharine Reynolds and her daughter Mary Reynolds Babcock to design the plans for the grounds of the Reynolda estate. This will be the first time that these archival images of the Reynolda estate have been on view to the public.
Reynolda House received support for “Heroes in Horticulture” in part from The Ecology Wildlife Foundation.
Exhibition Events
Exhibition Opening: Friday, July 31, 7 p.m.
The members-only exhibition opening will feature “Bearing Witness: The Tree,” a ballet performed by the Winston-Salem Festival Ballet, a new funded partner of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. The ballet is choreographed exclusively for Reynolda House by Gary Taylor with music by North Carolina composer Rob Sharer. The ballet will be followed by a reception and attendees will be invited to view the exhibition. To join Reynolda House in time for this opening, call 336.758.5889.
Concert: Sunday, August 23, 3 p.m.
The Carolina Summer Music Festival presents a concert titled “American Landscapes,” which takes inspiration from the exhibition and features a program including Edward MacDowell’s “Woodland Sketches” and Charles Griffes’s “Tone Poems.” Admission is $8 for members and students, $15 for non-members. For tickets and information, please call 336.758.5150 or visit reynoldahouse.org.
Gallery Talks: Thursdays, September 3 and 17, noon
Informal gallery talks led by Reynolda House staff will introduce landscape architect Thomas Sears’s photographs of the Reynolda landscape, followed by a brief walking tour of the estate. Admission is free to members and included in the price of admission to Reynolda House for non-members.
Portals of Discovery: September 1, 8, 15, 22; 9–11 a.m.
In this continuing education class titled “Reynolda Meditations,” students will explore different ways of finding meaning in a landscape. They will learn the elements of Buddhist and Christian meditative traditions, study the Reynolda habitat, and read the nature poetry of A. R. Ammons. Registration is $80 for members and students, $100 for non-members. For information and to register, please call 336.758.5900 or visit reynoldahouse.org
Conference: 17th Conference on Restoring Southern Gardens and Landscapes
September 24–26
Planting and maintaining public and private historic gardens will be the focus of the 2009 conference, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. “Returning to Our Roots: Planting and Replanting the Historic Southern Garden” will be held at Old Salem Museums & Gardens in Winston-Salem, N.C. Reynolda House is a sponsor of the event, which is open to amateur gardeners and enthusiasts alike. Registration for the entire conference is $320, with discounts for members and separate registration available for individual sessions. For more information, visit www.oldsalem.org, call 336-758.5900, or email [email protected].
Call 336.758. 5889 or visit reynoldahouse.org for information about the many benefits of membership.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art is one of the nation’s premier American art museums, with masterpieces by Mary Cassatt, Frederic Church, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe and Gilbert Stuart among its permanent collection. Affiliated with Wake Forest University, Reynolda House features traveling and original exhibitions, concerts, lectures, classes, film screenings and other events. The museum is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the historic 1917 estate of Katharine Smith Reynolds and her husband, Richard Joshua Reynolds, founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Reynolda House and adjacent Reynolda Gardens and Reynolda Village feature a spectacular public garden, dining, shopping and walking trails. For more information, please visit reynoldahouse.org or call 336.758.5150.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art | 2250 Reynolda Road, Winston Salem, NC 27106
www.reynoldahouse.org
