Connoisseurs and Cultivars at the Antique Garden Furniture Fair!
Posted in Programs and Events on April 23 2014, by Lansing Moore
The Antique Garden Furniture Fair is one of the most festive weekends at the Garden, and it is the country’s most renowned stage for authentic garden antiques and rarities. With more than 30 fine exhibitors offering antiques alongside our own Specialty Plant Sale, there is enough inventory and expertise in the Conservatory Tent and the Garden Room to help anybody bring their dream garden to life. Guiding you through the history of these remarkable treasures is a full series of programs scheduled throughout the Fair, running April 25 to 27. Read on for the full list of programs, as well as details regarding Friday’s Members Day!
On Friday’s special sneak peek for Members, those supporters visiting the Garden will enjoy free parking and other discounts during regular Garden hours. In honor of Gregory Long’s 25th anniversary as CEO and The William C. Steere Sr. President of the NYBG, Garden Members are invited to join him on April 25 from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. in the Garden Terrace Room. Be sure to reserve seats in advance! A coffee and tea reception will be followed by reflections on the milestones of his distinguished tenure in a presentation entitled NYBG Then and Now: The President’s 25-Year Retrospective, detailing an era of restoration and revitalization that has transformed NYBG into one of the world’s most prominent cultural institutions.
The Garden Terrace Room will then be open to the public at 11 a.m. for the first talk of the weekend, Houses and Gardens: Their Intimate Relationship. Setting the tone for the Fair, the designer, author, and gardener Page Dickey will address the marriage of style and atmosphere between a house and its garden. Using imaginative examples around the country, she shows the importance of pathways and perspectives—axes from doorways, frameworks fashioned from hedges and lines of trees, terraces and walls—as unifying elements.
Page Dickey will then join several other authors at our Book Signers Fair. Some of the most accomplished names in garden writing, including a few of our own NYBG Adult Education instructors, will be present to answer questions and sign copies of their most recent works, covering topics from outdoor entertaining to ethnobotany!
The rest of the weekend is highlighted by a series of dedicated talks and Q&A sessions with our visiting vendors on a range of topics related to garden and interior design. Complete your appreciation of garden artwork with a visit to the Weird, Wild, & Wonderful exhibition in the Ross Hall and admire the work of the most skilled botanical artists portraying some of nature’s most unusual specimens. Take your home or garden to the next level this year, either with a showstopping work of art, or one of the varieties of shrubs, trees, perennials, annuals, and herbs that will be available—including Japanese maples and Itoh peonies. With a little inspiration, the next big garden party could be your own!
