This exhibition is about flowers; how American artists and cultures use these images to portray uplifting joy, personal grief, power, race and identity. The Hood’s permanent collection will showcase paintings, sculpture, photographs, and utilitarian objects to demonstrate how flowers have connected us through time for the past two hundred years.
Two sessions will be spent in the exhibition space discussing various artistic styles, from realism of a single flower study to vast floral landscapes or personal multifaceted stories using flowers as metaphors. Hood Museum educator Katie Coggins said “flowers can be more than pretty—they can share meaning…they’re decorating, they’re bringing attention to something else, they’re encapsulating a memory.”
The third session will push each student’s creative abilities by designing their own “floral artwork.” Instruction on Japanese Ikebana floral arranging will be demonstrated teaching the art of placing flowers/natural elements to embody minimalism, harmony, peace, and beauty. The first two sessions will take place at the Hood; the third, at Court Street, will be spent creating our own bouquets. There will be an additional materials fee.
This course will consist of discussions between the Study Leader and participants.