Garden exhibit opens at Saco Museum

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A Newsletter by the City of Saco, Maine	March, 2006	Return to newsletter index

Spring arrives early at the Saco Museum with the opening of Garden Artistry Past & Present. This show features three exhibitions:

The Lost Gardens of New England, an exhibition organized by Historic New England;
Artist in Your Garden, featuring watercolors by Saco painter Judith Kinsman and garden designs by Carol Galli of Saco; and
Saco's Historic Parks & Gardens, highlighting how some of Saco's parks, gardens and cemeteries have changed through the years.

Lost Gardens of New England, a traveling exhibition organized by Historic New England and presented by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, MA, draws upon the wealth of images - drawings, watercolors, and historic photographs - in Historic New England's collection. The exhibition uses reproduction material to depict New England gardens, great and small, that no longer exist or only partially survive. Major themes of American landscape history: the New Republic, House and Garden Beautiful, and Revival Gardens. Landscape drawings provide insight into how these gardens were conceived and visualized by their creators, either amateur or professional. Photographs illustrate New England's rich garden design traditions and offer inspiration to gardeners today. Artist in Your Garden is a collaborative exhibit between Saco watercolorist Judith Kinsman and Saco garden designer Carol Galli. The process of designing a garden will be explored using Ms. Galli's gardens plans, sketches and photographs of private gardens in Southern Maine. Watercolor paintings by Ms. Kinsman capture the essence of Ms. Galli's completed garden designs, including sweeping landscape views as well as planters brimming with flowers. In conjunction with Artist in Your Garden, the Saco Museum is offering a 4-part watercolor class taught by Ms. Kinsman and a 3-part garden design class led by Carol Galli.

Saco's Historic Parks & Gardens, an exhibition developed by museum staff and volunteers, uses historic photographs, postcards, maps and landscape plans to explore how some of Saco's public and private landscapes and gardens have changed or vanished through the years. Pepperell Park and Laurel Hill Cemetery are two of the featured landscape spaces. This exhibit also gives visitors the chance to see plans for garden spaces or parks that were never constructed as well as how a 19th century cast iron fence in Laurel Hill Cemetery which held the clue for the reproduction of a fence at the Joshua Chamberlain House in Brunswick, Maine.

The Saco Museum is located at 371 Main Street. The exhibitions run through Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14, 2006. The museum will maintain following open hours for the Garden Artistry exhibition: Noon - 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and Noon - 8 p.m on Thursday. Museum admission is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, $2 for students and children, and children under 6 are free.Thursday evenings are free. For more information, contact the Saco Museum at (207) 283 - 3861, online at: www.sacomuseum.org.