On Saturday, May 12 and Sunday, May 13, the Tryon Fine Arts Center (TFAC) and the towns of Tryon and Landrum will present Art in Bloom — a tour of five private gardens as well as a gardener’s shopping extravaganza in downtown Tryon and Landrum on Saturday.
TFAC will be open at 3 p.m. on Sunday for self-guided tours of all the exhibits. Well-known regional sculptors will have works of art inside and outside the center, and other artists and photographers will display additional works. All will be on display and for sale at TFAC starting May 3.
At 4 p.m. on Sunday, the featured speaker will be Sally Spangler Barnett, editor of “Garden Club of America Bulletin.” Organizers said Barnett, educated in both art and photography, is a perfect example of the synthesis of garden and art. Long associated with the Cummer Museum of Jacksonville, Fla., she is the author of “A Tale of Two Gardens,” which compares the historic Cummer Gardens in Florida to its founder’s inspiration, the Villa Gamberaia Garden in Tuscany.
At 5 p.m. on Sunday, the weekend will end with a reception sponsored by Tryon Federal Bank honoring Barnett, the owners who have opened their homes for Saturday’s tour, participating artists, volunteers and speakers. The event will include a sale of all the artwork.
Jean Pettigrew, chair of Sunday’s event, said, “We are anticipating more than 50 artists and sculptors, as well as a retrospective by the photographers of the gardens featured during Art in Bloom in 2010. Art will fill all levels of TFAC indoors as well as in Green Corner, Farwell Garden and Sassoon Park.”
Proceeds from Art in Bloom will benefit Tryon Fine Arts Center and the ArtScapes project: creating pocket parks in Tryon, Landrum and Columbus.
Tickets for Saturday’s Garden Tour and Sunday’s reception are available online at www.art-in-bloom.org and are on sale in various locales throughout the region and at Tryon Fine Arts Center. For more details, call 828-859-8322 or visit the website.
– article submitted by Marianne Carruth