State Botanical Garden Announces Statewide Art Competition

The State Botanical Garden of Georgia is conducting an art competition sponsored by the J.A. and H.G. Woodruff, Jr. Charitable Trust to recognize student talent and create signature items for the Garden’s Gift Shop. Funding for this competition not only awards significant cash prizes to students throughout the state, but the Garden is then able to use winning artwork to create signature pieces that can only be purchased at the Garden Gift Shop. The artist of the winning design will be awarded $1,000. Other awards of $500 and $250, plus certificates of merit, will be awarded. The deadline is December 1, 2011.

This competition is open to Georgia students 9th grade and above. This year’s theme is Georgia’s Native Plants, celebrating the beautiful flora native to our state. Although the art does not have to include native plants, it is recommended and the guidelines include four websites that show native plants.

Artwork should be within a certain size and must be two-dimensional. Entrants should keep in mind that the goal is to create items for the State Botanical Garden Gift Shop, such as totes, stationery, T-shirts, journals, scarves and more. All two-dimensional media including pencil, pen and ink, paint, photography, collage, and computer enhanced graphics are permitted. One color designs are welcome. The artwork does not need to be framed, but should be signed.
Winning entrants in previous competitions have not only included the expected art, graphic design, scientific illustration and photography majors, but high school and home schooled students and students majoring in degrees not related to art or horticulture.

For more information, call 706-542-6014 or see the complete guidelines and entry form at:
www.uga.edu/botgarden or www.uga.edu/botgarden/documents/events/artcomp.pdf

Forged From Nature Poetry Contest

Our first Twitter contest! The six sculpted gates that create the Forged From Nature exhibition look so great in our ever-changing gardens that we thought they could inspire poety! And so here is our first Twitter contest! Write a poem that fits inside one Tweet and you might win prizes from our Garden Gift Shop and have your poem features on a Garden post card. Official Rules: Each person may submit poetry of any kind inspired by Forged from Nature: An Exhibition of Garden Gates by Andrew T. Crawford. Each poem must fit within one tweet (141 characters) and each tweet must also include #BGpoem (this is not part of the poem, but only tweets containing #BGpoem will be considered). The contest begins Friday, April 8th and continues until 8PM on Sunday, April 17th. Garden staff will choose the winner and seek poems that capture the essence of the gates and Garden most eloquently. The chosen winner will receive a prize package from the Garden Gift Shop which includes a Forged From Nature t-shirt (sizes S-XL available). The selected poem will be used by the Garden on postcards to be sold in the Garden Gift Shop and be posted in our Fall Newsletter. The Garden retains the right to use the winning poem to help celebrate and promote Forged from Nature. We look forward to reading your poems!

BotJam playing at the 40 Watt!

We've got some great musical talent at the Garden that will be playing Friday night. Come support them and a great cause. William Tonks explains it all below:
This will be one for the record books. This week will see a three night battle of the bands descend on the 40 Watt Club, the epicenter of Athens’ musical scene. The event, a benefit for Nuci’s Space, has allowed local businesses (25 have entered!) to corral their talent and put together a band specifically for this, what it known as the AthensBusinessRocks contest. Well, here at the SBG, we have a leg up, as there is already an ensemble ready to go, made up entirely of SBG staff, present and past, going by the name “botjam.” The players: Susan Cooper (Gift Shop Mgr), Bill Kirch (Visitor Services), Bill Leveque (Hort. Staff), Ryan McNeill (former Hort. Staff curator), Steve Mitchell (former hort. staff curator), Wade Seymour (Hort. Staff, Hort Staff, Shene Stroud, Visitor Services, and William Tonks, Visitor Services. The gig: a 15 minute set Friday night, February 4, at 9:30 at the Fabulous Forty Watt Club. There is a cool website at athensbusinessrocks.com, which lists more details about the event and the competition, and the far-ranging, interesting rules for judging.
If you are willing to venture out for a pretty-early slot, 9:30 on a weekend night (the bands play til 1:00, and they initially had us slated for the 11:30 slot, but I wheedled us a more friendly time), that will increase the likelihood of success-big support, big results! They will be charging an admission fee ($5) at the door, and all this goes to Nuci’s as well. The 40 Watt’s pleasant and experienced barkeeps can meet any beverage need, and you get a chance to be part of a really cool cause, and have a chance to see if Botjam can deliver (and what they’ll deliver!). And, if you really, really want to get involved, you can vote for botjam on the website, with your dollars attached, and this is one of the judging criteria. So, if you can’t attend Friday night, you can still help propel Botjam to the final round! So, big opportunity for fun, for involvement in a great cause, great pr connection for the SBG, a great night out with your friends, both offstage and on, and, from what I’ve heard so far, some pretty fine singing, picking, banging and shaking! Let there be rock.

Winners of Statewide Art Competition Announced!

The State Botanical Garden of Georgia is pleased to announce the winners of their 2010 Art Competition. This competition is sponsored by the J.A. and H.G. Woodruff, Jr. Charitable Trust to recognize student talent and create signature items for the Garden’s Gift Shop. Funding for this competition not only awards significant cash prizes to students throughout the state, but the Garden is then able to use this artwork to create signature pieces that can only be purchased at the Garden Gift Shop. Eighty-seven entries were received by Georgia students 9th grade and above.

First place winner Elizabeth Nixon is a UGA senior studying Ecology and Scientific Illustration. “I've spent many hours wandering through the botanical garden, and though I have seen a vast collection of plants and animals from around the world, I am most fascinated by the native flora and fauna of Georgia. I hoped to show that in my art by researching the types of plants, animals and fungi found in the area and using that in my paintings. Georgia has the highest number and greatest diversity of amphibian species of all the United States, and is a contender for the state with the most species of turtles. I wanted to show that though birds and mammals are charismatic and very noble creatures, it is our overlooked herpetofauna that are what make Georgia truly a gem of biodiversity." Accompanying the painting "Come Out of Your Shell" was a list of scientific names for all species shown: eastern box turtle, spotted touch-me-not, endemic psylocybe mushroom, black raspberry, ox-eye daisy, globular drop snail, and seven-spotted ladybeetle. Nixon also won a certificate of merit for another entry. Second place and both third place prizes were awarded to high school students.

Now that the winners are chosen, Gift Shop manager Susan Cooper will determine how to use this art to create signature items, such as T-shirts, totes, scarves, stationery, and more to sell in the Garden Gift Shop. “We have many handmade pieces created by local artists and by volunteers who gather together to craft items to sell in our gift shop. The objects created from the winning art will complement our selection of unique, garden-themed items.”

Congratulations to our winners:

First Place, $1,000:

• “Come Out of your Shell at the Botanical Garden” - watercolor by Elizabeth Nixon, University of Georgia (Athens)

Second Place, $500:

• "Inversion" - watercolor and ink by Katie Siegel, Collins Hill High School (Suwanee)

Third Place, $250:

• "Unnamed" - acrylic by Kristen Pack, Wesleyan School (Norcross)

• "Together" - photo by Julie Rodriguez, Wesleyan School (Norcross)

Certificate of Merit, $100:

• "Owl Tree" - ballpoint pen by Elise Longnecker, Georgia Gwinnett College (Lawrenceville)
• "Bufo americanus" - watercolor by Elizabeth Nixon, University of Georgia (Athens)

Honorable Mention:

• "Pod" - charcoal by Julia Timms, Gainesville State College (Watkinsville)
• "Grasshopper" - photo by Evan Anderson, Wesleyan School (Norcross)
• "Leaf" - photo by Jake Cusick, Wesleyan School (Norcross)
• "Breeze" - photo by Robyn Johnson, University of Georgia (Athens)
• "Yellow" - acrylic by Adriana Galvez, Wesleyan School (Norcross)
• "Forgotten Hope" - handmade paper by Corey Masccida, Cross Keys High School (Atlanta)
• "Daisy" - photo by Emily Howell, Wesleyan School (Norcross)