by Sarah Roche
Education Director, Massachusetts Horticultural Society Certificate In Botanical Art and Illustration And Founding Director, NESBA
Twenty years ago, botanical art classes were launched by the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens (WCBG) and taught in the WCBG Visitors center. The program was defined as ‘bringing together fine art and scientific accuracy in an integrated course of study set in Wellesley College Botanic Gardens.’ Since then, we have created a certificate program in Botanical Art and Illustration and introduced many hundreds of artists to the exacting practice of recording the beauty and wonder of the natural world. The program is now a highly regarded and rigorous program that is nationally recognized, with many international talented teachers, as well as our own core instructors.
As many of you know, in the last six years, many changes – construction of the new Global Flora greenhouses, the Covid pandemic, and further development on Science Hill at the College- have challenged us to keep the program going, both in different venues and virtually. As a result, many of the benefits of being part of a botanical garden have been lost. More recently, a change in WCBG’s focus has made our program less of a fit for the College, and so, for the last few months, Eileen Sprague and I have been exploring ways to keep our classes vital and relevant, with more of the benefits and opportunities that come from being part of a vibrant horticultural community.
One of our frequent venues, during this time of change, has been the Gardens at Elm Bank, home of Massachusetts Horticultural Society, just up the road from Wellesley College, on the Natick line. Transferring our program to be part of the portfolio of classes offered by MassHort seems like the perfect solution.
The opportunities offered to our students by being part of the MassHort community are huge, and after a lot of discussion involving staff at both Wellesley College and MassHort, we are so pleased and excited to announce that we now have a permanent new home that will maintain the integrity of the program.
This means that we will be able offer many extra opportunities which take advantage of the wonderful Garden at Elm Bank as well as continuing our wide range of virtual in-person and virtual classes.
Although there have been many changes and challenges at MassHort over the years, their President, and Executive Director James Hearsum, who was appointed just before the pandemic, has gotten the organization back on a firm footing, with a very strong board, and an exciting vision for the future of the gardens. Being part of this vision is so exciting for both our program, and for NESBA. We will now have a rotating exhibit space with regular calls for entry for our students and graduates. The library and gardens are now available to our community, with many exciting plans and exhibit possibilities on the horizon. Having a physical presence on the MassHort campus gives us all much of what we have been missing.
I hope that you are as excited as we are and will take advantage of our new location by visiting the gardens, walking in the beautiful park that surrounds it, checking out our latest exhibits (more to follow on that!), joining MassHort to take advantage of the perks of their membership and maybe even registering for one of our upcoming exciting classes!
You can find the upcoming classes by clicking on the image below.
Happy painting,
Sarah
