Starting in July and continuing through Columbus Day, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay will have a dedicated office space in the new Bosarge Family Education Center available to a different expert each week.
As far as gardens staff can determine, the in-residence program is the only one at a U.S. botanical garden that includes other types of experts beyond visual or performing artists.
In the future, painters, photographers, ornithologists, botanists, landscape architects and other experts-in-residence will participate in a series of activities to enrich the gardens experience.
Landscape architect Herb Schaal, who is responsible for much of the gardens’ design, will be the first expert-in-residence. Schaal, who is associated with AECOM in Colorado, is a Fellow in the American Society of Architects. What isn’t widely known is that he’s also a talented watercolor painter.
From July 5-7 he will be onsite, creating watercolors of various garden and natural areas at the Gardens. Each day, the Gardens staff will post the times and areas where he will be working.
On Wed., July 6, from 1-2 p.m., he will present a landscape-design walking tour of the gardens he designed at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and will also provide tips on designing a home landscape. Reservations are required; tickets are $10 for members and $19 for non-members, which includes CMBG admission.
To sign up, call 633-4333, visit www.MaineGardens.org, or stop by the Visitor Center, off Barters Island Road in Boothbay.
On Fri., July 8, he will be a keynote speaker at the gardens’ all-day symposium, “Designing Your Signature Maine Landscape.” His watercolors of the gardens will be on view in the Bosarge Family Education Center during the symposium.
With nearly 60 state and national awards from the ASLA, Schaal is one of the most professionally awarded landscape architects in the nation.
In 2008 he was named Designer of the Year by the American Horticultural Society. His work stresses applying landscape architectural principles and sustainable design to the full range of projects, from national parks to gardens.
During his more than 50 years of experience as a site planner and landscape architect, a major portion of his work has been for public gardens of all sizes, including Denver Botanic Gardens, Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Frederik Meijer Botanic Garden, Morton Arboretum, Naples Botanical Garden, and San Francisco Botanical Garden. Whether the scale is small or large, his work consistently emphasizes attention to local sense of place with a focus on local craftsmen and artists, local history and culture, and indigenous plants and plant communities.
His designs for Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens include the master plan, Lerner Garden of the Five Senses, Bibby and Harold Alfond Children’s Garden, and Bosarge Family Education Center landscape, as well as a future project.
Future Experts-in-Residence
From Mon.-Fri., July 18-22, Barry Dana will be the Expert-in-Residence. Dana, a member of Maine’s Passamaquoddy tribe and a resident of Solon, is one of New England’s most highly skilled Native American craftsmen.
He builds and educates people of all ages about traditional dwellings, canoes, and baskets. His work will be for sale throughout his residency.
During his residency, Dana will build a 15-ft. long coastal Maine birchbark canoe using all-traditional materials and methods.
The estimated launch date/time is Fri., July 29, at 11 a.m. The public is invited to watch Dana work and attend the launching. In other sessions, he’ll demonstrate how to make a temporary survival shelter and craft traditional baskets and will present a showing and discussion of “Homeland,” a film produced by his sister.
As the summer progresses, CMBG will present programs and workshops by Barry W. Van Dusen, an internationally recognized wildlife artist; acclaimed woodblock artists Kim and Philippe Villard, who have studios in Boothbay Harbor and the South of France; and horticulturist and professor Michel Dirr, the guy who wrote the book on woody plants, literally.
The full schedule is on the gardens’ website, www.MaineGardens.org. To learn more, call 633-4333, or stop by the Visitor Center, off Barters Island Road in Boothbay.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, located on 250 shorefront acres just over a mile from the Boothbay common, is open from 9-5 daily. Admission is free for all members and children under age three; non-member fees are $12 for ages 18-64, $10 for seniors 65-plus, and $8 for children 3-17. Group rates are available.
