Chicago Botanic Garden Bonsai Plan
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- Chicago Botanic Garden Table of Contents Page
- Chicago Botanic Garden MISSION STATEMENT
- Background Brief History of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Bonsai Collection
- Collection Maintenance, Display, and Record Keeping
- Vision for the Bonsai Collection
- Strategies for Achieving the Vision Maintaining and Developing the Collection
- Programming the Collection
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Chicago Botanic Garden Bonsai Plan A single tree in its pot is my companion; the green shades of a thousand years press about me. Who can tell the vastness of the world here contained? In the space of a few inches is mighty Mt. Zhuyong Feng. Ryushu Shutaku August 2009 Chicago Botanic Garden Table of Contents Page Mission Statement 1 Value Statement 1 Background 2 Brief History of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Bonsai Collection 2 Collection Maintenance, Display, and Record Keeping 3 Vision for the Bonsai Collection 5 Strategies for Achieving the Vision 6 Maintaining and Developing the Collection 6 Programming the Collection 8 Short and Long Term Strategies 9 Appendices I. Comparative Data 10 II. Chicago Botanic Garden Current Inventory of Bonsai a) Display Quality Bonsai 12 b) Bonsai in Training/Development 20 III. Chicago Botanic Garden Bonsai Management Policy 25 Chicago Botanic Garden MISSION STATEMENT The mission of the Chicago Botanic Garden is to promote the enjoyment, understanding, and conservation of plants and the natural world. VALUE STATEMENT The Chicago Botanic Garden belongs to the people of Cook County and metropolitan Chicago. As a living museum, it seeks to express its mission fully – in collections, education, research and conservation – for all its visitors and throughout its community. To this end, the Garden must be viewed as a resource as well as place, as a means to an end as well as an end in itself, and as a repository of knowledge to be disseminated as broadly as possible. The Garden’s collections and professional expertise are dedicated to serving the needs of its community and to improving the quality of life for its citizens. It will be an institution relevant to the lives of the increasingly diverse population of metropolitan Chicago. In expressing the human relationship to the natural world, the Garden will not forget its service to humans. Background Brief History of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Bonsai Collection Although the Garden never set out to become a center for bonsai, it has, over the years, amassed one of the premier collections in North America and is the site of one of this country’s largest bonsai shows. It maintains a strong and beneficial relationship with the Midwest Bonsai Society as well as other groups and institutions in the United States and Japan, and attracts considerable public interest with its bonsai displays in the east and west courtyards of the Regenstein Center. The original collection consisted predominantly of donated specimens. It was maintained by Bonsai Society member Jack Wilson and Botanic Garden staff. In 1978, the collection was displayed on a bench structure in the east courtyard of the Education Center. That display was removed when the courtyards were redesigned in 1994. In 1995, at the urging of the Midwest Bonsai Society, the Botanic Garden Committee of the Board of Directors approved the east courtyard as a display area. Susumu Nakamura, a Japanese bonsai master and longstanding friend of the Garden, donated 19 of his favorite bonsai to the Garden in 2000. These are masterpieces -- incredibly high quality bonsai and a priceless addition to the collection. The donation reinforces the Garden’s bonsai collection’s status as one of the best collections in the country. This gift gave the Garden an opportunity to move an already excellent collection toward a world-class level. Display space for the collection was renovated in 2006. Previously, only 10 to 15 bonsai could be on exhibit for the public. Bonsai have a front and back and should only be viewed from the front. They are optimally displayed at eye level with a plain backdrop. Bonsai perform best outdoors and need sunlight and the temperate plants need winter dormancy. Both east and west courtyards at the Regenstein Center were completely reworked to create a display space for bonsai. Sixteen granite benches with translucent glass backs were installed in each courtyard. Edge lighting illuminates the trees at night. Different sizes of backdrops provide flexibility for displaying different sizes of trees. Up to fifty trees are now on display for the public at one time. The number of subtropical bonsai in the collection has increased and many flower before bonsai can go on display outside. Bonsai are currently not on public display during the winter although they could provide an added winter attraction. In 2006, funding was provided to hire a part time Bonsai Curator to provide the necessary expertise and artistic talent to develop and maintain the collection. The Garden’s Bonsai curator is the only person on staff with advanced knowledge of bonsai development and training such as the volunteers provide. With a generous gift from the Regenstein Foundation, the outdoor growing space for bonsai was completely renovated in 2008. Drainage, new stone for the base and additional benches were installed to grow bonsai. An over-wintering structure for the collection was installed along the north wall of the Horticulture Building. This new configuration doubled the amount of summer growing space to 1,000 square feet of full sun bench space and 540 square feet of shade bench space for bonsai. The current area is surrounded by a ten-foot fence topped with barbed wire. A motion detector monitors the space. The collections on display are protected by an alarm system that sounds whenever the display is touched or moved. Because of the value of this collection, which is estimated to be $546,399 as of July 2009, the Garden insures the bonsai under the same insurance policy that covers its Fine Arts Collection. It is not anticipated that the collection will be a focus for research. Today, the collection is regarded by bonsai experts as one of the three best collections in the country, along with the Pacific Rim (temporarily closed in April 2009) and National Arboretum collections, in terms of quality of specimens and variety of styles. (See Appendix I for statistics about this collection compared with other major public garden collections in this country.) In total, the collection includes 171 display quality bonsai, with 108 in training. (See Appendices IIa and IIb for a complete listing and description of the current holdings.) Since 1977, the 200-member Midwest Bonsai Society has staged its annual show at the Garden in August. This is the most popular plant show on the annual calendar, attracting a weekend audience of over 17,000. The Midwest Bonsai Society also started holding a spring bonsai show in 2004. A strong collaboration exists between the Garden and the Society. The Garden provides staff support for the show, advertises it with banners, notification in Members Magazine, and public relations expertise. The Midwest Bonsai Society gives the Garden a set portion of space revenue, approximately $4,000 per year. The Midwest Bonsai Society also holds its regular monthly meetings at the Garden, and its members have played an indispensable role in developing and maintaining the Garden’s Bonsai Collection. Collection Maintenance, Display, and Record Keeping Bonsai horticultural maintenance and development is exacting work. These plants are masterpieces, shaped by human artistry addressing itself to a living plant. The creation of bonsai specimens requires sophisticated knowledge of horticultural science in addition to a well-developed aesthetic sense. Plants must be repotted and roots and branches must be pruned annually, and the whole must be trained according to a strict regimen and with a clear sense of the aesthetics of the finished art work. It is the members of the Midwest Bonsai Society who have become volunteers and have provided and continue to provide time and talent in the maintenance of the collection. These Garden volunteers have been maintaining and refining the collection for over 35 years. Since 2006, the group of volunteers has increased from five to twenty-two. Most of the new volunteers are members of the Midwest Bonsai Society and students of the Bonsai Curator. Some of the volunteers have skills approaching a professional level. The Garden’s Plant Production staff water and fertilize the collection while in Plant Production. Staff working in The Greenhouses water and fertilize the plants when on display in the Regenstein Courtyards. Currently, bonsai display is seasonal with the plants periodically rotated so that visitors are exposed to various elements of the collection at the peak of their flowering, fruiting, fall color, or other interest. The temperate bonsai do best outdoors, but the severity of Chicago winters limits their display to May through October. The temperate bonsai are beautiful in winter but there is currently no where to display them during this time period. The Three Friends of Winter Bonsai Silhouette Exhibit was produced in early 2009 to showcase the winter forms of select bonsai. Because of the value of the collection, and an active black market in their thefts and sale, the bonsai are displayed and stored with an alarm system. When temperate plants are not on display, they are housed on the east side of the Plant Production greenhouses. The subtropical bonsai are stored in the Production Greenhouses. The collection is managed according to customary museum practice. A standard plant record is maintained for every plant in this collection. (See Appendix III for the Chicago Botanic Garden Bonsai Management Policy.) Vision for the Bonsai Collection The Chicago Botanic Garden’s bonsai collection is a collection of international merit by the nature of its holding and considered a preeminent example of bonsai in the United States. The Garden will develop a world class bonsai collection focused on temperate plants by increasing the diversity and balance of its training styles and taxa with flowering and fruiting time that span the entire display season by targeted solicitation of private donors for significant bonsai specimens. The scope of the collection will make it possible to exhibit bonsai at all times of the year. When plans for the renovation of The Greenhouses move forward, a year-round venue for display of subtropical bonsai should be included. The master site plan for the Science Center Campus and Plant Production expansion offer new opportunities to expand the use and display of the bonsai collection. Temperate bonsai could be displayed in a cool (35° - 38° Fahrenheit) greenhouse during the dormant season, when the display of winter habit would be a key component. A work area could be made accessible in the Production area of the new Science Campus for visitors to watch staff and volunteers train bonsai. With the Chicago Botanic Garden’s visitors reaching 750,000 per year, the Garden’s bonsai collection is likely to be the most viewed in the world. Only the Kokufu Exhibit in Tokyo (Japan National Exhibit) has more attendance than the Midwest Bonsai Society Summer Show held at the Chicago Botanic Garden. There are few public collections in Japan, with only the Japan National Collection in Tokyo, exceeding the planned content of the Chicago Botanic Garden bonsai collection. The Chicago Botanic Garden will make a world class collection of bonsai readily accessible to inspire and educate the public. Strategies for Achieving the Vision Maintaining and Developing the Collection The Plant Production staff waters and fertilizes the bonsai in Plant Production, and the Midwest Bonsai Society volunteers prune, repot, and train them under the direction of the Garden’s part time Bonsai curator. Bonsai are pruned and trained in the Production head house. The Greenhouses staff waters and fertilizes the bonsai when on display in the Regenstein Courtyards. The Garden has been very fortunate to acquire the services of Susumu Nakamura, a Director of the Nippon Bonsai Society. He is in residence for one week per year to repot, style, and prescribe the direction of the collection (Appendix III). The Garden’s Bonsai Management Policy sets quantity limits on the collection to prevent indiscriminate additions and to preserve the highest quality of plants. As the Plant Production area expansion is discussed within the science campus master site plan, the bonsai storage space will be included in the program. To maintain the collection of display-quality bonsai at a maximum of 200, plants of the lowest quality in the collection, or those of a style or taxon of which there are many, will be deaccessioned as new higher quality trees are acquired. Currently, the collection has too many bonsai (of a wide range of quality) or too few taxa and not enough trees such as crabapples that flower in May and later. The curator of bonsai will make these decisions according to the Bonsai Management Policy. Discussions with The Midwest Bonsai Society over many years on an occasional basis regarding the possibility of the Bonsai Society endowing a Bonsai Curator position and work/storage area have not yet resulted in any funding. Presently, the Midwest Bonsai Society is not considering an endowment for the Bonsai curator. A long-term strategy for funding a Bonsai Curator position needs to be established to assure a high quality collection into the future, optimal display of the collection, publications, training, demonstrations, and visitor interaction. There are approximately 75 high quality bonsai in private collections in the Chicago area. Several owners have expressed interest in or are considering donating trees to the Garden’s collection. These donations would come when the owners die or no longer are able to care for the trees. Throughout the United States there are many private collections containing high quality bonsai with competition for these trees by public institutions being fierce. At present there are at least 12 public bonsai collections in the United States with another eight in planning or development. Cultivation of local bonsai owners as well as those in Japan for donations of high quality trees will be a strategy for developing the collection. Six bonsai from Japan were donated to the Garden in 2008. Four of these trees are being held for a two-year quarantine period in at Wildwood Gardens in Ohio and will be shipped to the Garden in spring of 2010. The Bonsai Curator will visit potential tree donors’ nurseries or collections to develop a personal relationship with them and educate them about the Garden’s bonsai program. When appropriate, the Bonsai Curator will ask for a donation of a tree or trees to the collection. Currently, all bonsai imported from Japan must be quarantined in a special facility with permits to avoid introducing foreign pests and disease. The Garden will continue to explore alternate means to quarantine trees as Wildwood Gardens, the current quarantine facility, does not meet all of the Garden’s expectation. These options include working with a quarantine station in Japan and securing a permit for the Garden to import trees and quarantine on site. Programming the Collection The art, history, and methods of bonsai have been incorporated into the Garden’s on-site interpretive signage for the Regenstein Center Courtyards bonsai display. The School now offers four levels of bonsai classes, beginner, beginner-novice, intermediate and advanced intermediate. The long term goals are to recruit skilled teachers from the bonsai volunteer pool and add on a novice-intermediate level for a total of 5 levels of instruction. These new teachers will cover the three entry levels of instruction, allowing the curator to focus on the advanced levels. Additional instructors also add the capacity to teach multiple classes at each level simultaneously. No other institution in the United States offers a full program of training like the Garden’s. The Bonsai Curator will solicit donations of bonsai-related books, periodicals, DVDs and photos that can be used in support of the Garden’s collection for training and teaching. A collection of these items currently exists and could be donated to the Garden. Once the Botanic Garden has a full time Bonsai Curator on staff, a program of daily, on-site informal demonstrations of bonsai pruning and training techniques in the display areas could attract an interested audience. The courtyards work best as a display space versus a demonstration area though. Plans for the renovation of Plant Production include an area where demonstrations can be done on training bonsai. The Garden will offer a lecture series or master classes. Current teaching materials in English for bonsai are primarily at the basic level with very little existing for those wanting more advanced levels of information. The Garden could fill this educational void by producing more advanced instructional materials. The bonsai, both subtropical and temperate, could be part of a strategy to increase winter visitation. They have the potential to form an interesting exhibit with other trained plants such as the topiary in the east Greenhouse. When the long-term plan is developed for The Greenhouses, an area to display of bonsai year round should be addressed. If temperate bonsai are displayed in winter, they would need a cold house. Short and Long Term StrategiesDirectory: sites -> default -> files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations files -> Nstructions for Acquiring Excess Equipment online, through the 1033 Program files -> Occupational health and safety files -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten Point Program files -> International programs roel profile files -> Fermi Questions a guide for Teachers, Students, and Event Supervisors Lloyd Abrams, Ph. D. DuPont Company, cr&D/ccas experimental Station Wilmington, de 19880 files -> Personal Information Name: Maha Al-Ammari Nationality: Saudi Relationship Status Download 0.51 Mb. 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