Blossom in the 11th Annual Festival of Flowers
Festival of Flowers
April 4 –7, 2024
Free with Museums Admission
[fusion_dropcap class="fusion-content-tb-dropcap"]T[/fusion_dropcap]he Springfield Museums are excited to welcome spring with the 11th Annual Festival of Flowers, on view from Thursday, April 4 to Sunday, April 7. Free with Museums admission.
With a vast array of floral arrangements planned to grace the galleries of art, history, and science, the Springfield Museums are prepared to burst with color!
“We are thrilled to host the 11th annual Festival of Flowers! Seeing the galleries transform, filling with beautiful and creative floral arrangements, is a highlight of our year,” exclaims Director of Education, and Festival of Flowers organizer, Larissa Murray. “We are grateful to the generous, talented florists and community members who make this event possible year after year!”
Celebrate spring with this floral tradition and see the many ways in which these talented artists utilize flowers to interpret a wide range of pieces across the Museums. Enhance your floral experience by attending any of the myriad events that coincide with the festival! Related programming throughout the festival and beyond is listed below.
RELATED PROGRAMMING
Museums a la Carte: Botanical Illustration Then and Now
April 4 @ 12:15 pm–1:30 pm
Presented by Alice Tangerini, Staff Illustrator, Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
This lecture will offer an overview of botanical illustration, showing drawings from the past and how those illustrations and techniques carried into the present, as well as changes over the past 30 years. Alice Tangerini, Staff Illustrator at the National Museum of Natural History, will show how specimens are collected to be accessed into the Smithsonian herbarium, along with techniques for illustrating those collections for the audience of scientists, for the new digital media used for on-line journals, and some ways that illustrations are done for a more general audience.
Festival of Flowers: After Hours
April 4 @ 5:00 pm–8:00 pm
Enjoy hors d’oeuvres and cocktails while touring the interpretive floral arrangements in all four museums. Experience floral fashion, make your own mini bouquet, and get creative with floral printmaking and origami. Live music, complimentary food, and cash bar.
Museum Class: Floral Art in Pastels
April 5 @ 10:00 am–3:00 pm
Working from live flower arrangements in the gallery, learn how to capture still life in pastels. Beginning with a demonstration, explore the application, effects, color massing and tonal values, as you complete a drawing from start to finish. For all levels. Please bring lunch. Supply list provided.
Museum Class: Creating Botanical Illustrations Using Layered Media
April 5 @ 1:00 pm–4:00 pm
Join Alice Tangerini, Staff Illustrator at the National Museum of Natural History, for an afternoon of botanical illustrations. Working with a combination of pencils, participants will create a detailed drawing of a flower on drafting film from living plant materials. An additional layer of opaque watercolor supplies the color on an underlying sheet of drafting film. The result of the layered media for the illustration gives the appearance of a hand-tinted photograph.
Festival of Flowers: The Flower Lab
April 5–7 @ 10:30 am–4:00 pm
Hands-on learning with real plants in Spark!Lab. Pull-apart dissections, a please touch table, and sculpture building with recycled floral packing materials. Free with museum admission.
Festival of Flowers: Docent Tours
April 5–7 @ 11:15 am–4:00 pm
Join experienced docents as they discuss the interpretive floral arrangements and the museum objects that served as inspiration. Meet in the lobby of each museum. Free with museum admission.
11:15 am D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts
12:15 pm Springfield Science Museum
1:15 pm GWV Smith Art Museum
2:15 pm Wood Museum of Springfield History
3:15 pm D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts
Festival of Flowers Family Day
April 6 @ 10:00 am–5:00 pm
Tour the galleries to view extraordinary floral designs inspired by objects in the Museums, then explore the world of flowers through hands-on activities. Free with museum admission.
Museum Travel: New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill
May 8 @ 9:00 am–3:30 pm
Just in time for carpets of daffodils, tulips, and the long-awaited fragrance of spring blooming trees and shrubs. Spend the day at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill with a guided tour of the conservatories, formal and naturalistic gardens. Located in the town of Boylston, MA, the 171-acre botanic garden and arboretum features 18 distinct gardens, preserved woodlands, and miles of walking trails. A group lunch at the Garden Café is included.
SpringfieldMuseums.org, One Admission/Five Museums,
including the one and only Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum
Parking is always FREE
THE SPRINGFIELD MUSEUMS are located on the Quadrangle at 21 Edwards Street in the heart of downtown Springfield, MA. Reaccredited in 2023 by the American Alliance of Museums (only 3% of the nation’s museums earn this distinction), the Smithsonian-affiliated consortium of museums includes the Springfield Science Museum, the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History, the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, and the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, the world’s only museum dedicated to the beloved children’s book author and Springfield native.
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