Twelve years ago, an exhibition by glass artist Dale Chihuly helped put the Atlanta Botanical Garden on the map.
Since then, the garden has doubled in size, and more than $100 million has been invested in new facilities and gardens. It is now positioned as one of the top 10 gardens in the U.S. and has become an international destination.
As of April 30, Chihuly’s work has once again made itself at home among the woodlands and dells. The exhibition features 19 major installations, including 500-600 pieces of glass. Five of the installations are original to the botanical garden, and all are designed specifically for the exact spaces they occupy.
Coinciding with the Garden’s 40th anniversary, the exhibition includes the Fiori Boat and Niijima Floats, a boat filled with multicolored spikes and spears reaching up from what appears to be a medley of red and yellow balls, flower blooms and other shapes. In a pond, sea blue sculptures sprout up from the water, undulating toward the sky like fronds. Chihuly is known for blending his art into the garden through his use of glass, polyvetro and resin.
“This exhibit is stunning; it’s just spectacular,” says Mary Pat Matheson, CEO and president of the garden.
Other installations include the chartreuse “Hornet Chandelier” suspended above a bed of brilliant purple reeds created in Norway, and the 30-foot neon yellow “Saffron Tower,” which promises to light up the garden at night.
Chihuly’s glass blowing methods are drawn from his experiences in Europe. After losing sight in his left eye in a car accident, he no longer had the depth perception needed to blow glass. He watched Venetian glass blowers work as a team and adopted the method, later opening a school in Washington state based on the same principles. This enabled him to create works on a large scale.
“He was deeply influenced by the Venetian glass blowers,” Ms. Matheson says.
While Chihuly is based in Seattle, he has relied on factories in Finland, Ireland and Mexico to create his sculptures. Some of the reeds he sculpts are so tall that they can only be made in a factory in Finland. And an exhibit of purple reeds is made of neodymium, a mineral found only in that country, Ms. Matheson says.
As Chihuly has grown as an artist, so has the garden grown. It draws 30 percent of its visitors from outside Atlanta, including countries such as the U.K., Australia and India. On any given day, you can hear multiple languages being spoken, Ms. Matheson says.
And as the Chihuly exhibition opened, so did a new restaurant, Linton’s.
“If you are visiting the Southeast, you will want to come to the Botanical Garden,” Ms. Matheson says.
Chihuly in the Garden opened April 30 and runs through Oct. 30. The exhibition can be viewed during day or nighttime hours.
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