Ellen Bruzelius is Director of Special Projects, Garden Retail and Business Development.
Shop in the Garden has been garnering attention lately in the blogosphere with a variety of garden-inspired goods that have struck the fancy of bloggers around the world. From a Chicago-based shopping blog that featured our green bicycle basket (also mentioned on Glamnest.com) all the way across the pond to Berlin where a New England-born journalist noted our Summer Pleasures melamine plates on her blog, Tidepooler.com, nybgshop.org has been piquing interest near and far.
Back on our own shores, in New York the Today show and Cookie magazine picked up on new NYBG products developed with licensing partner Lunt Silversmiths. Using glorious images from works in the Rare Book Collections of our LuEsther T. Mertz Library, Lunt has developed a tabletop collection that ranges from elegant silver tea sets inspired by 18th-century designs for Chinoiserie garden follies to garden plant trays and marvelous Mark Catesby-inspired glasses and barware and more.
The Peak of Chic (check out the July 15 and August 6 posts) loved the Lunt Silversmiths products as well as NYBG fine art prints sold through Artaissance.com. These archival quality reproduction prints also stem from historic botanical illustration in the Mertz Library collections. Some are presented in their original form, while others are given a modern sensibility with color and creative cropping.
This Old House featured one of our stainless steel birdfeeders, and Glamnest.com loved our array of colorful imported flower pots.
Not surprisingly, this interest in Shop in the Garden goods reflects the enormous effort put in by Shop staff to develop and find items that are design-driven and not ubiquitous. We’re adding new things all the time, so be sure to visit often.
Reading this article made me think of all the other amazing wildlife one can see here on a given day. Yes, the Botanical Garden prides itself as a museum of plants with extensive flora in its 50 gardens and plant collections. But visitors might be surprised at the diversity of fauna they could also stumble upon during a visit here. Our neighbor across Fordham Road may have lions and tigers and bears, but a stroll through NYBG reveals an unexpected variety of life from the animal kingdom.
Birds are abundant, from majestic hawks circling overhead to families of ducks ambling along a path. On the Garden’s popular guided Bird Walks, held Saturday mornings September through June, people seek out robins, blue jays, cardinals, sparrows, and even owls. I’ve been amazed to see wild turkeys, blue herons, plump pheasants, and even what looked like an ibis swooping to grab a koi from one of the pools in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Courtyards.
If you look closely enough, birds aren’t the only wildlife you’ll see. Chipmunks scurry in the Forest. Frogs belch their songs in the ponds of the Rock Garden, while Italian wall lizards dash across nearby stones. From rabbits and turtles to muskrats and squirrels, it’s incredible to realize how many species of life call our 250 acres “home.”
Nick Leshi is Associate Director of Public Relations and Electronic Media.
Over 40 years ago, Andy Warhol famously turned a can of tomato soup into a pop culture icon. Now photographer Victor Schrager has turned his camera lens on the tomato itself, elevating it to a high art. The September 2008 issue of Veranda magazine features two articles written by Tom Woodham, gloriously illustrated by Schrager’s stunning images of tomatoes from the gardens of Amy Goldman, a member of The New York Botanical Garden’s Board of Managers.
The pictures give justification for one of the magazine’s headlines, “Tomatoes: The Most Beautiful Fruit.” If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I imagine anyone viewing such a variety of shapes and colors would agree that this bountiful produce captured on film is beautiful indeed.
Genna Federico, a senior at St. John’s University, is an intern working in the Communications Department this summer.
It’s hard to avoid social networking sites on the Internet lately. These sites are ways to rekindle old friendships, consider new ones, find people with common interests, or even discover new business opportunities.
Now you can also add The New York Botanical Garden to the online discussion.
We recently expanded our profiles on Facebook and MySpace to let a broader public stay informed of what’s happening at the Garden. Check out the pages, watch the videos, share your thoughts, spread the word, and maybe decide to become our new BFF!
And for those of you who want to share your photos, don’t forget our Flickr group. It’s already jam-packed with some really stunning shots; will your masterpiece be the next addition?
Nick Leshi is Associate Director of Public Relations and Electronic Media.
The video review of Moore in America by Time magazine’s art critic Richard Lacayo is now on YouTube. It is a wonderful analysis of Henry Moore’s sculpture and the 20 monumental works on display at The New York Botanical Garden.
Since its creation in 2005, YouTube has revolutionized the distribution of user-generated video content. YouTube accurately describes itself as “the leader in online video and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide.”
If you come across any videos about the Botanical Garden, let us know. One of my favorites is this charming clip created by “megruth” who visited with her mom a couple of years ago during our popular Chihuly exhibition.
You can also browse through the videos in The New York Botanical Garden’s own channel on YouTube. The videos from our Kiku exhibit, for example (below), have generated hundreds of hits and have been linked to a number of social networking sites.
Genna Federico, a senior at St. John’s University, is an intern working in the Communications Department this summer.
Whether you refer to it as a giardino botanico, botanischer garten, jardim botânico, or simply a botanical garden, The New York Botanical Garden has been receiving a lot of buzz lately in media outlets around the world.
The very welcomed attention from the foreign press has focused on our distinguished exhibitions Moore in America and Darwin’s Garden, expanding the Garden’s international exposure.
Journalists from around the globe—Germany, Spain, Australia, Great Britain, Japan, Turkey, Canada, and elsewhere—have visited and written about The New York Botanical Garden in recent months.
In one instance, a video crew from Brazil TV’s Cultura Metropolis arts program interviewed Karen Daubmann, Director of Exhibitions, about Moore in America. From Europe, Italian media filmed a segment on Darwin’s Garden for the Pikaia Web site, and the Garden was also featured in the newspaper La Stampa, whose Web site also included dozens of images of Moore sculpture.
In addition to the Associated Press story mentioned in last week’s blog post, “The Bronx Is Blooming,” other stories reported by the International Herald Tribune have been picked up by the foreign press, including a prominent mention in an article about “museum-quality art” exhibitions at botanical gardens in the United States. No doubt the coverage will continue to snowball.
The NYBG clearly has something to offer visitors from near and far, so check it out. Adiós, au revoir, arrivederci!
Over the years, The New York Botanical Garden has been visited by a few of the “boys of summer” who have worn those classic pinstripes and played in baseball’s historic cathedral. Former Yankees center fielder and All-Star Bernie Williams dropped by during the winter of 2004 (seen at right with Bob Heinisch, our VP for Site Operations). Joe Torre, who guided the Yankees through four World Series Championships and was an All-Star player himself during his career, toured the Holiday Train Show with his family a few years ago as well. Other Yankee heroes and All-Stars who have enjoyed a visit to the Botanical Garden included Joe Pepitone and Willie Randolph (seen below, again with VP Bob). Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay even served as Master of Ceremonies for the Garden’s Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony in 2007.
This is the last year people will be able to step foot inside the “House That Ruth Built”—the new stadium opens next year. But you can wax nostalgic and still see a replica of the original Yankee Stadium—made of plant parts—at the Garden’s Holiday Train Show, which opens November 23.
In the summer of 1977 the Bronx was literally burning. In the midst of a devastating blackout, New Yorkers were faced with looting, bankruptcy, municipal layoffs and the very real threat of the Son of Sam killer.
You’d have to be Rip Van Winkle to not notice that much has changed in the 31 years that have followed, but to some the rugged, urban stigma of the Bronx remains. No longer, says Associated Press Travel Editor Beth Harpaz. In her article, “The Bronx Is Blooming,” she celebrates the more than 7,000 acres of park land, and in particular, The New York Botanical Garden. As one of the many luscious “green spaces” in the borough, Harpaz credits the Garden and others as instrumental in revitalizing tourism in the Bronx.
The article is generating a lot of buzz and has been picked up by major outlets such as USAToday.com, CNN.com, AOL.com, NYPost.com, AMNY.com, Newsday.com, CBSNews.com, the Poughkeepsie Journal.com, and more.
June is renowned for roses, and plenty of media took note of the magnificent Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. But beyond the roses, which will be in bloom through the fall, people across the Web were talking about The New York Botanical Garden.
The The New York Sun featured the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden with a front page photo. Don’t fret if you missed it; you can still read the accompanying story and browse a cool photo slideshow of a gorgeous afternoon in the Rose Garden.
While there is nothing more glamorous than a beautiful rose in full bloom, the people at Glam.com took notice that some of the products at NYBG Shop in the Garden are pretty snazzy in their own right. Reviewer Jennifer Kopf had plenty of nice things to say not just about the Rose Garden but also about the wide selection of terra-cotta pots, planters, and other garden-related items.
The New York Academy of Sciences Web site, Science & the City, listed the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden’s cooking demonstration Herbal Tea and Snack Sampling. Why not take their advice and come snack on savory eats and sip herbal tea, all from plants grown at the Family Garden, during July from 1 to 5:30 p.m.
Blogger Marie from Bethlehem, PA, documented her recent trip to NYBG with a rundown of her favorite spots in the Garden, complete with full-color pictures.
Summer is descending on New York City, and that means it’s time to dust off those shorts and sandals. Right now the weather couldn’t be better, which is why it’s no surprise that NYBG’s current exhibition, Moore in America, has been noticed as one of the best outdoor sculpture exhibits in the city!
Artinfo.com gives a nice rundown of the top five NYC oudoor sculpture exhibits this summer. Moore in America is compared favorably to the other shows in the city, outranking works by Jeff Koons, Richard Deacon, and Tom Otterness.
While the art scene can seem a little stuffy and exclusive to the uninitiated, BLACK20 News breaks down Moore in America for the average Joe. According to its site, the weather commands you to come see the show: “Get a taste of culture amid your typically brain-numbing summer fare. Nature demands it!!!” How can you argue with that?
Some of the Garden’s fans in Germany and France will get the chance to see a new documentary, The Gardens of New York. European filmmaker Veronika Hofer shot portions of the doc at the Garden and other locations across New York. Hopefully we’ll get an Engligh-language version soon.
Channel Thirteen/WNET continues to air its captivating episode of New York Voices about Darwin’s Garden. Those of you who woke up too late to catch last Saturday’s 7 a.m. airing can always view the entire episode on-line. If that’s not enough, the program has an entire NYBG-devoted web page with interviews of people such as Dr. Dennis Stevenson and a tour of the Pfizer research lab.
And just because he’s so cute, here’s a preview of WNET’s piece on Snowflake, the white gorilla. Try and resist his cuteness!
Ellen Bruzelius is Director of Special Projects, Garden Retail and Business Development.
featured our green bicycle basket (also mentioned on Glamnest.com) all the way across the pond to Berlin where a New England-born journalist noted our Summer Pleasures melamine plates on her blog, Tidepooler.com, nybgshop.org has been piquing interest near and far.
Back on our own shores, in New York the Today show and Cookie magazine picked up on new NYBG products developed with licensing partner Lunt Silversmiths. Using glorious images from works in the Rare Book Collections of our LuEsther T. Mertz Library, Lunt has developed a tabletop collection that ranges from elegant silver tea sets inspired by 18th-century designs for Chinoiserie garden follies to garden plant trays and marvelous Mark Catesby-inspired glasses and barware and more.
