Every May, flowers of all seasons and varieties can be found in profusion at Featherstone Center for the Arts’ annual Art of Flowers show. The Mother’s Day weekend tradition was begun 20 years ago by Holly Alaimo, former owner of the Dragonfly Gallery in Oak Bluffs. When Ms. Alaimo sold the gallery in 2010, the show moved to Featherstone’s Virginia Weston Besse gallery, where it’s taken root as one of the arts campus’ most highly anticipated events.
Starting this Sunday with the show’s opening, the gallery will be abloom once again with the work of dozens of artists. As always, a variety of media will be represented, including painting, photography, sculpture, jewelry, and possibly a few surprises. In the past, artists have contributed items as diverse as painted rain barrels and flower tic-tac-toe sets.
“It’s our most popular show by far,” Emme Brown of Featherstone said. “It’s definitely the most heavily participated show. We normally accept three works from each artist, but for this show we can only include one. We have to hang it salon style [meaning multiple works hung at a variety of height levels] because there are so many submissions.”
The result is a blast of color. “You walk into the gallery and you’re in a garden,” Ms. Brown said.
That’s exactly why Ms. Alaimo introduced the show two decades ago. “It’s a great show. It’s just a harbinger of spring,” she said. “We all need flowers this time of year.” Ms. Alaimo originally introduced the idea of themed shows in order to make her gallery more inclusive.
“I would try to do a few themed shows that were open to all the artists who came to me. Not everyone did the kind of artwork that I was focusing on. It was great to have a couple of shows each year that were really open to the whole artist community, to have an unjuried show that embraced everybody. The flowers were such a good theme. Everybody has painted or photographed flowers at some time. The flower show was the one that stuck.”
After the Dragonfly changed hands, former Featherstone director Francine Kelly invited Ms. Alaimo to curate a flower show at Featherstone. She has done it ever since.
Although Featherstone no longer hosts its traditional Mother’s Day tea and fashion show, the Art of Flowers opening is always a big draw. This year, the show will be supplemented by another flower-themed exhibit in the smaller Pebble Gallery, just down the hill from the main building.
Featherstone will be honoring Jeanne Campbell, who died in March, with a retrospective of her flower photos. “We call her the queen of flowers,” current Featherstone director Ann Smith said. “When I think of Jeanne I always think of flowers. She shot here and in New Jersey, where she spent the winter. She created a flower calendar every year. She will be missed. She was a great supporter of Featherstone, a wonderful artist, patron, and just a lovely lady and friend.”
Ms. Campbell and her husband Malcolm Campbell, who died in December 2014, were among the major funders of the Pebble Gallery, the most recent addition to the arts campus. They also founded Featherstone’s annual Art of Chocolate festival. The retrospective of Ms. Campbell’s work was already planned before her passing, but now will serve as a memorial to her as an artist.
This year also marks Featherstone’s 20th anniversary. The organization sprang from Meetinghouse for the Arts, which was formed as a not-for-profit arts organization in 1980 to promote the arts and develop community. In August 1996, Meetinghouse for the Arts purchased the six and half acres on which the organization is currently based. The non-profit was officially renamed for the former farm in 2002.
“It’s just a great celebration for the community and a kickoff for the summer season,” Ms. Smith said. “It’s our chance to celebrate 20 years of Featherstone, 20 years of the flower show, and the artist and donor community — people like the remarkable Jeanne Campbell.”
The 20th annual Art of Flowers Show: opening reception Sunday, May 8, from 4 to 6 pm. Show runs May 8 to June 1, and is open daily from 12 to 4pm. For more information, visit featherstoneart.org.