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Natalie Sanford

The smell of the outdoors fills the lobby at the Minneapolis Institute of Art as museum staff whisk various flowers and vases around the hall. Everyone busily prepares for Art in Bloom, the largest museum fundraiser and community event of the year.

Art in Bloom is an annual exhibition in which local artists create floral arrangements based on popular museum pieces. Visitors are invited to view the arranging live on opening day and to stop by during the entire celebration.

The museum will use 160 pedestals to display the flowers throughout the museum this year, according to JeanMarie Burtness, a museum docent and co-chair of the event. She said there will also be 20 arrangements by commercial florists which may be as large as a door.

The artists for Art in Bloom base their arrangements on certain museum pieces, and Burtness said the flowers they choose are meant to evoke the same emotions as that artwork.

“If you’re in the modern galleries, those arrangements tend to be more creative, brighter colors, more unusual,” Burtness said. “When (arrangements) are in the Asian galleries, they tend to be more elegantly simple, not as many flowers. The arrangements are all different.”

Sophomore Katera Phillips said she would visit the event to experience the wonderful smells of the museum. She said she likes the idea of artists using paintings to make the displays.

“I think it’s interesting that they can arrange the flowers based on a painting,” Phillips said.

According to Burtness, the theme of the event this year has echoes of environmentalism, present in the arrangements and the museum as a whole.

“(The museum’s) two floral demonstrators insist on using domestic flowers. They want sustainable, they want flowers that don’t have a lot of chemicals in them. They talk about working conditions,” Burtness said. “I wouldn’t say it’s overt, we’re not hitting people over the head with it, but it’s there.”

In addition to the environmentally friendly flowers, Burtness said the museum will compost all of the waste produced at the event.

The first day of Art in Bloom consists of a gala for donors and sponsors with a silent auction to raise money for the museum. According to Burtness, the money raised this year will go toward an increase in opportunities for Twin Cities schools to visit the museum.

“This will be expanding (busing) so all of the Twin Cities can apply to come for a field trip,” Burtness said. “For example, if you were taking history of the Americas, you would come and see the art we have from South America.

The museum will reveal a special surprise in honor of the museum’s 100th birthday at the gala as well, Burtness said, and the public can view it throughout the event.

“(The surprise) will be big and beautiful and have a nod to the past and the museum’s 100th year, and a nod to the future as well,” Burtness said.

Burtness said the huge impact of the floral celebration is clear when she sees how much people enjoy the experience.

“You see people coming in and they may be kind of grumpy, but when they’re leaving you see people who have happy smiles on their faces,” Burtness said. “It’s worth a year of my life that I got involved planning it.”

Sophomore Camarie Grier said she thinks the exhibition is a way for people to bring out their creative side through flowers.

“That sounds really cool and a great way for people to show their creativeness,” Grier said. “I love flowers. I do think flowers are art because I think nature is art.”

Art in Bloom begins April 29 with the gala, and is open to the public until May 2. The museum and main event are free, and ticketed lectures are $10-30.

For a schedule of the event and to buy tickets, visit artsmia.org.
Infographic: Cedar Thomas