Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art at the Hood Museum of Art (In-person)

Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art at the Hood Museum of Art (In-person)

Fall (4-8 hours) | Available (Membership Required)

Main Street Hanover, NH 03755 United States
Hood Museum Room
10/9/2025-10/23/2025
View Schedule
$50.00

Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art at the Hood Museum of Art (In-person)

Fall (4-8 hours) | Available (Membership Required)

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.

 

  • There are no required books for this course.

    Materials fee to come.

    First two sessions take place at Hood Museum; third session takes place at 1 Court Street.


Shafer, Jeanne
Jeanne Shafer

I love flowers! My happiest moments are being connected to the earth and its profusion of beautiful, blooming blossoms. In addition to a Masters degree in art history, I am an avid gardener, nurturing my seasonal flower beds. During the summer months, I volunteer at Saint Gaudens National Historic Park arranging flower bouquets to decorate their buildings. I trained for three years as a professional flower designer with a particular interest in the ancient art of Japanese Ikebana arranging.