BRIGHT AUTUMN NIGHTS—GLEAM AT OLBRICH BOTANICAL GARDENS
- Jennifer Jewell
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Hot August nights turn to bright August nights at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI.
The Garden's annual GLEAM light show is celebrating its 10th anniversary and opens August 30th, transforming the very bright-by-day gardens into equally bright in a different way by night. The award-winning display runs through October 25th, and this year’s exhibit will center on the concept of reflection. Illuminated art installations by light artists from around the country will brighten the Gardens’ landscape, reflecting a language of love for the natural world. Concepts such as the intrigue of plants at night, photosynthesis, bioluminescence, and dynamic equilibrium have all been highlighted in past years' displays.
Join CP guest host Ben Futa this week in conversation with Benjamin Smith, Show Curator, and Missy Jeanne, Public Programs Manager at Olbrich, to talk all things bright and beautiful at Olbrich for this GLEAM season.
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All Photos Courtesy of Olbrich Botanical Gardens. All rights reserved..
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JOIN US again next week, when Jennifer will be exploring the source of some of our gardens’ greatest design and plant inspirations. She’s in conversation with Stephen Packard and Eriko Kojima of the Somme Prairie and Woods Nature Preserve outside of Chicago and its restoration these past 20 years and counting. The Somme Prairie is one of the finest remaining intact examples of native prairie in the U.S. That's right here, next week. Listen in!
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Thinking out loud this week...
Hey, y'all, it's Ben—
If you’re listening/reading, you likely identify as a Big-G Gardener, and
all of us are working to grow our world better through the intentional cultivation of our surroundings, transforming “space” into “place”. Olbrich lives this every day and remains one of the most inspiring public gardens I’ve had the pleasure of visiting.
May your 10th season be filled with light, love, laughter, and memories, and may you continue to cultivate and share the beautiful abundance of the natural world for many more decades to come. Onward.
We're so pleased to share Missy & Ben with our Cultivating Place community. I have had the sincere pleasure of visiting GLEAM several times since its inception, and it’s only gotten better each year. I’ve long had a fascination with light, especially outdoors and in garden settings, and we’ve visited our fair share of installations across the country, including several by Bruce Munro who
Missy mentioned earlier. GLEAM is a standout for several reasons. Often in the world of large cultural entities like public gardens and museums, exhibits
like this are what’s known as “traveling” exhibitions. They move from place to place, the same artwork installed in different locations at different times of the year. This achieves a certain economy of scale while also presenting a particular work of art in a new context and to new audiences, however it also shrinks the pool of potential artists and original art that these organizations make possible.
I’m excited for you to learn how Olbrich and the GLEAM team have worked to change this narrative and create something unique, sustainable, and impactful while sustaining multiple artists and building community in the process. It’s a magical story.
I love how the GLEAM team and Olbrich have approach their process: co-creative and collaborative from the start, grounded in community, and never the same twice. It’s a substantial lift in terms of time and resources, and their commitment to embracing a wide array of art and artists – and compensating them – is admirable, especially right now. Our world needs art and artists now more than ever. We need plants and big-G Gardeners more than ever. Olbrich and GLEAM bring the two together, and I’ve always walked away feeling transformed and inspired. GLEAM is an abundance multiplier, a super power of cultivating plants and caring for plant-places.
For my fellow public garden nerds in the audience, Olbrich is very much the Chanticleer of the Midwest. Creativity, community, collaboration, convening, and curation, are all centered and celebrated at Olbrich, and GLEAM is one of
the finest examples of these values on display. There really is nothing else like it, and after a decade of growth and learning, I wish Missy, Ben, and the entire GLEAM team and Olbrich community the happiest of anniversaries.
If you’re within driving distance of Madison, Wisconsin, I would encourage you to plan your visit now. The 10th year of GLEAM kicks off on August 30 and runs through October 25. Olbrich, GLEAM, and Madison, are worth a visit. Onward!
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