Grounded in Memory was a collaborative exhibition between the Botanical Art Society and the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, curated by Margaret Walsh Best and Susan Furneaux. The curatorial theme was ‘our memory connection to local plants.
The Botanical Art Society of Newfoundland and Labrador (BASNL) and the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador launched a collaborative, two-venue exhibition starting August 18, 2022. The exhibition, Grounded in Memory, featured art and craft inspired by the connection between memory and plants. Margaret Walsh Best, President of BASNL curated contributions from BASNL artists, and Susan Furneaux, craft and design instructor at the College of the North Atlantic and Anna Templeton Centre, curated contributions from Craft Council craft artists. Concurrent exhibitions, combining art and craft, were held at the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador (155 Water Street, St. John's, NL) & MUN Botanical Garden (306 Mt. Scio Road, St. John’s, NL). The exhibition ran from August 18 at MUN Botanical Garden and August 19 at the Craft Council Gallery until September 23, 2022.
The distinctive scents, colours and textures of plants can conjure richly-textured memories: a childhood memory of a grandmother who taught you how to care for a patch of cottage-garden marigolds, dazzling yellow tints that evoke fields of brilliant dandelions, or the dusty greens and tiny blue blooms of the Sea Lungworth recalling memories of walks by the ocean. Beginning August 15, viewers visited the BASNL Facebook or Instagram sites to view exhibition excerpts and added their own stories. During the week of August 22, 2022, MUN Botanical Garden hosted tours, presentations and demonstrations of rug hooking, plant-based dye making, various steps in creating a botanical art piece and making a blossom using Legos.
