On March 19, Betty and I
journeyed up to Topsfield to see the third annual installment of the “Grow
Spring! Expo”. Here’s the top-level
impression: Holy Cow!
I was at the first Expo two
years ago. It was a fine undertaking
organized by the Topsfield Garden Club: a dozen or so exhibits, mostly
non-profits, built around environmental awareness and enhanced gardening
knowledge. It drew about 150
people. The second installment coincided
with the Winter That Would Not End and the 100 miles round trip was beyond our
endurance on a snowy weekend. We
reluctantly took a pass.
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| Inside the Emerson Center. Photo credit: Eric Roth. Double-click for a full-screen slideshow. |
I knew something was up this
year when a professionally-produced flyer arrived announcing the event. It promised “a celebration of local
agriculture, horticulture, and environmental preservation.” It would feature a farmers’ marketplace, wine
and beer tastings, antique farm equipment, crafts, and horticultural
experts. Moreover, what had been an
undertaking by the Topsfield Garden Club was now also sponsored by the
Topsfield Historical Society and the Essex County Agricultural Society. Previously confined to the historic Emerson
Center on Topsfield’s town green, the event would now spill over to the nearby
Gould Barn*.
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| Want to grow a one-ton pumpkin? These guys could tell you how. (Photo credit: Eric Roth) |
We arrived at 1 p.m. to find
every conceivable parking space spoken for, a long array of antique tractors on
display, and crowds moving between exhibits in the Emerson Center and food,
craft beer, and local wine tasting in the barn.
The Grow Spring! Expo had gone big time.
Topsfield Garden Club President
Martha Morrison told me that by bringing in the two co-sponsors, the Expo
gained an added dimension. The vintage
tractor lineup came via a contact through the Historical Society, a group that
grows giant pumpkins (and attracted a gaggle of children) is a member of the
Essex Agricultural Society. Each group
ran an expansive campaign to turn out the public using social media, posters,
and newspaper publicity.
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| Bees are essential to pollination. The Essex County Beekeepers Assn. was represented at the Expo.. (Photo credit: Eric Roth) |
But while the event was colorful
and fun, it was the unbridled expertise to be found in the individual exhibits
that set the Expo apart. For example, an
unassuming man named Jim MacDougall seemed to inhabit both a Conservation
Commission booth and an exhibit for an organic farm. He held court on the subject of invasive
plants; a subject that normally flies under the radar of people not already
attuned to their threat. His explanations were crisp and compelling. I later learned he is a highly respected
biodiversity consultant, lending his expertise for the morning to a worthy
cause.
Another person drawing a crowd
was Edith Ventimiglia. She spoke on
environmental education to adults, then offered on-the-spot mini-lessons to
children. It should come as no surprise
that she is an area science teacher, and that she also helped create the curriculum for the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s
Ipswich River Nature Pre-School in Wenham.
That’s just a sampling of the level of professionalism that was on
display.
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| Outside, there were vintage tractors |
The Expo drew more than 675 adults during its five-hour run, plus what
seemed like every child within a twenty-mile radius of Topsfield. The organizers have already been given
suggestions for next year’s event, including a tractor-drawn hay wagon to ferry
visitors between buildings.
Trying to find the one person – or even one organization - to whom to
give principal credit for the event turned into a finger-pointing exercise. Martha Morrison pointed to Topsfield Garden
Club Vice President Kindra Clineff (who at least acknowledged that she created
the poster). I now have an inbox full of
names of people and ancillary organizations (including Green Topsfield), each
of which seem to have been instrumental to the event’s success.
* * * * * *
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| Needham Art in Bloom paired floral designers with gifted high school art students |
“Art in Bloom” programs have become staples
among Boston area clubs over the past two decades. The “ur” event of this type is held at
Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts where, four decades ago, a group of garden club
members were invited to pair their floral designing talents with selected
pieces from the MFA’s permanent collection.
The event (opening this year on April 30) had become a three-day
extravaganza of high-profile speakers and master-class workshops (you can learn
more about it here).
Being asked to participate is an
honor. Those chosen have no voice in the
artwork they will interpret. A wonderful
older lady of my acquaintance – with a strong Catholic school upbringing – was
presented with a famed Picasso “Two Blue Nudes”. In her words, she “made it work”.
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| Floral designers captured the color and rhythm of artwork |
The success of MFA’s Art in
Bloom has spawned dozens of similarly named events across the region. A few,
such as Fitchburg, tie their programs to local art museums. Most look to the art programs in area
schools. In early March, I attended
Needham’s “Art in Bloom 2016” at the Needham Public Library.
The Needham event, now in its
eighth year, is sponsored by Beth Shalom Garden Club but draws designers from
multiple clubs. The art – 59 pieces in
all - is provided by Needham High School and showcases the breadth of art
education in the town. Needham High
offers AP-level classes in drawing and painting, photography, ceramics,
computer graphics and animation, and crafts. It requires at least an hour to
see and appreciate the range of projects created by the students, and to take
in the floral designs that accompany them.
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| In Canton, floral designers interpreted art from all grades. |
A week later, we were at
Canton’s Pequitside Farm to see “Artists in Bloom”. There, the Canton Garden Club and Canton
Public Schools have collaborated on a very different project. Instead of
drawing solely from high school students, there were more than 250 pieces of artwork from more
than 150 students representing every grade level. Thirty pieces were selected at random to be
interpreted by Canton Garden Club members.
I had the opportunity to spend
time with Joyce Stenmon, Visual Arts Program Coordinator for Canton Public
Schools. She told me “Artists in Bloom”
is an opportunity to visually demonstrate that art is universal. The art is placed cheek by jowl in four
rooms, with the interpreted pieces spaced every few feet. The effect is joyous and raucous, made all
the more so by the fact that the building was full of children and adults there
to see their creations on display. The event drew more than 300 adults (who paid a nominal admission fee) and more children than anyone could count. I
came away with a keener sense of the value of art’s role in 21st
Century education.
* * * * * *
Suffice it to say that garden
clubs are the sum of their parts (meaning their members), but those “parts” are
often extraordinary. People join garden
clubs because of an interest in gardening or floral design or horticulture, but
they bring with them a wealth of skills, plus the skills of spouses or
partners. The skills may be creative
(photography, design), business (finance, management), educational (teaching,
consulting), or technical (science, engineering). Pulling off a feat like the two Art in Bloom
programs or Grow Spring! Expo requires multiple talents and extraordinary
coordination.
Each club deserves all the
accolades they have undoubtedly received.
Great work!
* As a purely personal side note, walking into the Gould Barn was a step back into my own history. It was the place where, in September 2013, I gave my first presentation of 'Gardening Is Murder'. What an incredible journey!
