emd

I stumbled across this info on another travel baord yesterday, and have not seen it mentioned here. If you are in NYC btwn. now and Oct. 29, and have a free couple of hrs and like unusual beautiful art or glass, there is a large exhibit of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures at the NY Botanical Gardens. I have seen only an indoor exhibit of his (at the San Antonio Museum a few summers ago) and it just blew my daughter and I away. I bought tickets yesterday for the NY Botanical exhibit, early Sun a.m. the long weekend I am in NYC.

Here is the site- check it out, it is just incredible art in a natural environament, styled for that garden space.

http://www.nybg.org/chihuly_module.php

The NY Botantical Gardens is 20 min. from Grand Central Station on the Metro North line. Tickets on this part of the line (Hudson/Harlem line to Botanical gardens Station) are only $3 each way on weekends (called the CityTicket) so I see no need to buy the discount ticket combo that includes the train ticket if you are going on a weekend- otherwise the combo is a good deal. Also, if you join the Gardens as a member ($60), you get 4 free adult tickets (usually $20 apiece) and 4 free children's tickets ($5 usually) to the event, so that more than pays for the membership, and you get other perks related to the Chichuly exhibit and the gardens in general.

Train info, so you can time your train arrival to coincide w/your timed tickets to the exhibit:

http://as0.mta.info/mnr/schedules/sched_form.cfm

Has anyone gone to this? I can't wait to see it.

JAGIRL

I saw it when it was in Miami and thought it was amazing. I'm still wondering how they got that hornet's nest in that tree!!

swalter518

I too saw this exhibit in Chicago and it is stunning-the glass seems to cohabitate perfectly with the plants.

emd

ttt- has anyone been to this exhibit at the NY Botanical gardens?

mclauie? Howard? nytraveler? and other New Yorkers?

I would like to know how much time to devote to this exhibit and seeing the Botanitcal gardens on a Sunday morning at 10:00 am (timed tickets for the exhibit). We fly out of LGA at 5 pm and I am trying to figure out the rest of our day, if we have time to do anything else after the Garden or if this is all we should plan- or if we will have time to grab some lunch (maybe at Grand Central, on way back from Gardens) before we go back to the Muse to pick up our luggage and go to the airport.

Thanks in advance.

KT

I'm planning on going, and I was under the impression that the exhibition is site-specific, designed specifically for these gardens. Now I'm wondering whether it's a bunch of travelling pieces from the Chihuly empire instead. Does anybody know for sure?

bugswife1

I have seen his work in Florida, and of course in the Bellagio, and I am looking forward to this show as well. Just waiting for the weather to break. Can't even think about going in any kind of garden in this humidity. And, you should see my hair!

emd

KT, my understanding is that this exhibit was designed specifically for NY Botantical Garden. There is a similar exhibit in another botanical garden in some other city now, also designed for that space (can't recall now where it is- the ezboard USA site has the info).

swalter518

The Chicago exhibit was about 2 years ago and was his first garden exhibit. It is my understanding that these "botanical garden" exhibits use several of the same pieces but some of the pieces are new to highlight specific features of the individual spaces.

emd

The pictures on the site above are phenomenal, and the ones at this site are too:

http://p104.ezboard.com/feuropetogof...icID=334.topic

AnnMarie_C

I love Chihuly's work--he installed a ceiling at the San Antonio Museum of Art.

http://tinyurl.com/emy8c

HowardR

No, emd, like bugswife1, we are waiting for the weather to cool down. Hopefully, we will be going soon....on a weekday morning to avoid the big crowds.
And, emd, the exhibit looks great on that website you posted. Ah, I can't wait to go with camera in hand!

Liz5959

Yes, it's out here in flyover country. There is an exhibit of Chihuly's work at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. I went last week and it is wonderful. It's here until Oct. 31.

www.mobot.org

emd

Well, Howard and bugswife, like a complete total fool I am going at 10 am on a Sunday morning late in August, the worst possible time to go. Oh well, we will just dress lightly and take water and go for it. It looks worth it.

I think you guys should look into the membership if you don't have it, because you also get admission to members only evenings where they have live music and light up the Chihuly exhibits at night (a few more nights in July they will do this). I'd LOVE to go then.

Yes, I saw that ceiling at San Antonio Museum, it was phenomenal.

I would have loved to have seen his installations over the canals of Venice! The movie I saw on his work at the San Antonio museum had a lot of shots of those- HUGE Chihuly pieces (the chandelier types mostly) hung over the canals. I've never seen anything like that. I've been fortunate to have seen a lot of great art in my life, and his is just very special.

AuntAnnie

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota commisioned several pieces from him to hang in their new Gonda Building a few years ago. I like to visit them when I am in Rochester; they are gorgeous and whimsical. Wish I could see an exhibit!!

starrsville

The exhibit was at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens recently. Wonderful. Whimsical.

xaimi

liz5959
Did you go to the evening showing or the daytime. We are coming from IN and going to the nightime. Just wondered how crowded the exhibit is.

KikiLee

Went to see the exhibit today and it was wonderful. (Full disclosure: I am a corporate member of the garden, so did not have to spend the $20 for the ticket. I think it would be worth it though.) Despite the warnings, not crowded at all on a Sunday afternoon. (Maybe because it looked like rain? Ended up being a beautiful afternoon.) For anyone who is thinking of driving (you don't have to, Metro North stops just outside the gate), on-street parking was plentiful.

As for timing, we spent approx 3.5 hours wandering around the gardens. However, we saw all of the Chihuly exhibits - there is a main one in the Conservatory, and smaller ones in the Children's garden, Rose Garden, Greenhouses, etc. If you just stuck with the Conservatory, you could do it in much less.

Also, although I don't have them, I think that this would be a fabulous trip to take with kids. You could keep them entertained playing "spot the art" (it blends in so well with the plants that sometimes you don't notice it at first), and the children's garden was great!

emd

THank you for the report. Gla dyou had nice weather and no crwods. I told a friend of mine about this exhibit mine who is visiting NYC lext week and she has gotten tickets to take her family. I hope we have nice weather and aren't sweltering when we go; it shouldn't be too crowded in late August hopefully.

Malesherbes

AM, he did a Persian ceiling in his St Pete exhibit too. Wasn't it beautiful! Adults as well as children lay on the floor to fully appreciate it. The St Pete museum has a garden too, so there were many garden pieces as well, but either he didn't do the hornet's nest there, or if he did, I missed it...

massagediva

OOh,this sounds like fun-I'll have to put it on my calendar!