Jennifer Rominiecki, CEO of Marie Selby Gardens in Sarasota, and their V.P. of Botany, Bruce Holst, joined host, Shelley Reback, on MidPoint Wednesday to talk all about the blooming of Sarasota’s gorgeous Marie Selby Gardens into a powerhouse of sustainability and botanical conservation research, along with their exhibits highlighting nature’s relationship to art & culture, and their Artist in Residence, singer, songwriter and poet, Patti Smith. If you haven’t been to the facility lately, you will want to return soon because this is NOT your grandma’s garden!
Sustainability and conservation are the cornerstones of the renovation of Selby Gardens. In this, the 50th anniversary season of the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Phase One of their expansion and renovation project has opened. It includes the Living Energy Access Facility (LEAF) a parking garage roofed by a solar array that will make Selby Gardens the first net-positive-energy botanical garden complex in the world, a new and expanded Plant Research Center providing a best-in-class facility for scientific botanical research and a brand new restaurant, The Green Orchid, the world’s first net-positive energy restaurant entirely powered by the sun and managed by Sarasota’s renowned Michael’s On East with a true garden-to-table dining experience serving vegetables grown on the rooftop by EcoVets, a program staffed by Gardners who are U. S veterans.
As the home of one of the largest collections of plant specimens in the world, second only to the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, Selby Gardens is also a “living museum” with visual art exhibits that reflect and complement the artists’ relationship to nature. Currently, they are hosting the exhibition “Yayoi Kusama: A Letter to Georgia O’Keefe” which focuses on the unique correspondence and relationship between these two transformational artists whose work is echoed in the creative use of plants and landscaping by the Selby horticultural team. At their Historic Spanish Point auxiliary campus, Selby is also hosting acclaimed Florida photographer Clyde Butcher’s work “Nature Through the Lens.”
The singer, Patti Smith is deeply involved with Selby Gardens as their first “Artist in Residence.” She has performed at the Gardens for Selby members several times already and more is planned, including a performance dedicated to Georgia O’Keefe. If you miss her performances, you can hear her narration of the Garden’s new orientation video when you enter the new visitors’ Welcome Center.
Still in the planning stage is a new Education Center that will host classes for children and adults and backstage tours of the research facility.
Listen to the entire show on demand here, on the app, or as a WMNF MidPoint podcast wherever you find your podcasts.
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