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Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2006 Annual Report
Public Programs
Brooklyn Botanic Garden continued to increase and diversify audiences through vibrant seasonal event programming. A Fragrance Garden Celebration marked the 50th anniversary of the Alice Recknagel Ireys Fragrance Garden with concerts and workshops in aromatherapy and potpourri. The event kicked off a summerlong interpretive program, The Scent-sational Garden: An Interactive Summer Stroll Celebrating Fragrant Plants, which featured a self-guided interpretive brochure, fragrance-themed adult education classes, and weekend fragrance tours.
The art of Thai pumpkin carving on display at BBG's Ghouls and Gourds family halloween celebration.
Celebrating the end of the growing season in BBG's Children's Garden, September's Harvest Fair offered demonstrations and crafts workshops led by education instructors, including favorites such as "Planting Fun in Silly Containers." Award-winning musician Billy Jonas entertained visitors with his songs about gardening, recycling, and the environment; filmmakers presented selections from the Rural Route Film Festival; and members of the Vintage Garden Tractor Club of America exhibited their collection.
October's spicy Chile Pepper Fiesta featured an all-new lineup of chile-inspired programming, highlighting the plant's role in cultures around the globe. Performances included music and dance from Africa, Haiti, and Brazil; Latin funk; Texas rock; Mexican folk/rock; and Louisiana Cajun. Between sets, circus veterans Robbins and Ringold entertained audiences with fire breathing and chile pepper juggling. Other activities included chile gardening advice, Mexican cooking classes, African and Cajun dance lessons, Thai fruit carving, spicy-seasoning workshops for kids, and a lecture by Cajun scholars Carl and Ryan Brasseaux, entitled "The Louisiana Melting Pot: Food, Music, and Cultural Heritage in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina."
A record-breaking 10,100 visitors celebrated Halloween at the Ghouls and Gourds family event. Kids of all ages enjoyed concerts by reowned Cameroonian jazz vocalist Gino Sitson, kids' music star John Carlin, and the Ebony Hillbillies. Popular urban youth author Deborah Gregory spoke about her books and hosted a dance contest that drew several hundred contestants, and award-winning illustrator Gregory Christie and authors Paul Jacobs and Jennifer Swender shared presentations from their children's books. Special collaborations included the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the New York Puppet Library, and the Make-Up Designory school. The day concluded with a children's costume parade through the Garden, featuring colorful banners, giant puppets, and the northern Brazilian percussion of Maracatu NY.
In January, BBG hosted its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration with music led by Louvinia G. Pointer and featuring spirituals by her ensemble, the Great Day Chorale. The talents of young people were showcased through classical and choral music and theatrical performances.
The spring season was launched with the new initiative Hanami: Celebrating the Cherry Blossom Season at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which ran from April 8 to May 28 and received special support from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York. Hanami is the Japanese tradition of cherishing each moment of the cherry blossom season, from the first buds to the brilliant flowers to the petals falling like pink snow. During BBG's Hanami event, visitors strolled through the blossoming trees, shopped at a Hanami-themed display at the Garden Gift Shop, sampled a special Japanese menu at the Terrace Café, and viewed "Mizue Sawano: The Art of the Cherry Tree," an exhibition of artist Sawano's exquisite oil paintings of cherry blossoms, which have been featured in Sakura Matsuri event posters since 1992.
April's Sakura Matsuri cherry blossom festival drew over 72,000 visitors and featured the festival's largest-ever roster of performances and presentations.
Mayor Bloomberg named April "Sakura Matsuri Month" in New York City, and the 25th annual Sakura Matsuri was truly a cause for celebration, attracting a record-breaking crowd and featuring over 60 events for children and adults, the festival's largest-ever roster of performances and presentations. New offerings included the playful Japanese pop of Gaijin à Go-Go, a kimono fashion show by students of the JHC Foundation Schools, and a commissioned piece by Samurai Sword Soul, "Sakura: The Soul of Samurai." An exciting new collaboration with the Japanese city of Inayuma, spearheaded by Inayuma City Council member Anthony Bianchi, brought a group of 39 Japanese artists and dignitaries to participate in Sakura Matsuri. Presentations included tofu making by master chef Takuji Yamada, a calligraphy demonstration and exhibit by Orson Itoh, and Councilman Bianchi's lecture, "From Brooklyn to Inayuma."
At a special program, "Celebrating 25 Years of Japanese Culture and Sakura Matsuri," BBG president Scot Medbury presented engraved glass fan awards to five honorees: taiko drum group Soh Daiko, Japanese classical dancer Sachiyo Ito, Ikebana master Fumiko Allinder, Urasenke Chanoyu Center tea master Hisashi Yamada, and Tsutomu Karino of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York. Artist Mizue Sawano was presented with a bouquet of cherry blossom branches from the Garden's collection.
June Is Rose Month kicked off with Jazz and Roses, which offered swinging jazz by Susan Pereira and Sabor Brasil, vocalist Andrea Wolper and BBG's own talent, Wendy Russell. The Cranford Rose Garden hosted tours by BBG rosarian Anne O'Neill and BBG's Garden Guides, a special talk about Julia Child and roses by author Alex Prud'homme, a fragrance presentation, and a demonstration of knitted roses.
Improvements to BBG's gallery display and the cultivation of prominent artists increased Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery attendance and media attention. Exhibitions included "The Secret Garden: A Women's View," by the group Professional Women Photographers; "Winter Visions," presented by the Brooklyn Watercolor Society; "Does Time Stand Still?" alternative-process photographs by Herbert Hoover; and "The Skin of Trees: An intimate View of Bark," by renowned French photographer Cédric Pollet.