Art in Bloom adapts
Black Mountain Center for the Arts gets creative with new format
Jessica Klarp
Special to The Valley Echo
June 16, 2020
Art in Bloom, an annual community-wide event hosted by the Black Mountain Center for Arts that celebrates beauty in the community, will take place on a virtual platform this year. Courtesy of BMCA
For 20 years the nonprofit Black Mountain Center for the Arts (BMCA) has been a vital part of the cultural fabric of this thriving town. For 13 of those years, BMCA has held Art in Bloom, which has evolved into a two-month community-wide event celebrating flowers and beauty. Planning for this year’s 14th annual event began last June and the organizing committee was in the process of finalizing details when the virus hit.
In the works for almost a year were two gallery exhibits, a gala dinner party with an open bar, tables packed with guests, 22 floral designers standing shoulder to shoulder creating stunning floral designs on-site on our upper level display space and a community garden tour with dozens of volunteer garden guides and plein air painters in each garden. Easily a hundred people work together each year to make Art in Bloom a reality.
Art in Bloom is not only the most financially successful fundraiser the Art Center produces, it involves the most volunteers, sponsorships, tickets sold and lives touched. It is an event that more than satisfies the nonprofit organization’s mission to bring the arts to the people and people to the arts.
But, the world suddenly changed with the arrival of the global pandemic.
Creativity is the cornerstone of what BMCA represents, and organizers of Art in Bloom were not willing to let the 14th year of this special event fade away amid the challenges of social distancing. Given that six dedicated gardeners spent months preparing their beautiful gardens for an in-person tour that was not to be, the BMCA wanted to find a way to share the results of their efforts. The team turned to a creative, virtual solution.
Volunteer photographers Joye Ardyn Durham, Lynette Miller and Shane Peters volunteered their time to photograph the varied gardens. BMCA Program Coordinator Marylee Rorick put together the online tour and filmed garden owner Ruth Pittard, as Pittard discussed her experience with this year’s theme: drainage.
Participating garden owners don’t let a little run-off stand in the way of beautiful solutions to the deluge.
Art in Bloom 2020 is available online through blackmountainarts.org. Included in the online event is a virtual tour of all six of this year’s gardens and a presentation of last year’s awe-inspiring floral designs, usually only available in person or in book form.
Beginning June 20, Art in Bloom 2020 will be available by visiting blackmountainarts.org/artinbloom. This event is free, but BMCA needs support now more than ever and hopes website visitors participating in the tour will consider donating to support the Arts Center.
The Black Mountain Center for the Arts is located at 225 West State Street. For more information call 828-669-0930 or visit blackmountainarts.org.