Have you visited the Green Room Gallery at the Botanic Garden yet? Find out more in this post from the Curator Kevin Frediani.
The commissioning of a new structure that could look out from the garden to capture the views over the River Tay towards Fife, marked a unique opportunity for the University of Dundee Botanic Garden to present itself as a source of innovation and inspiration to a new generation of visitors. The Green Room gallery is a space that helps engage the visitor with the artistic side of the garden, where established and aspiring artists can be inspired and inspire others through celebrating the wonder of the natural world. It has been designed and constructed to sit naturally in the garden landscape and is constructed from sustainably sourced timber, that has been locally procured and built. The building is designed as a low energy building, using the solar gain from the south facing double glazed patio windows, that provide light and heat to the space and has a green roof of local meadow species installed by the garden staff.
Recent exhibitions include Trees Meet Sea by Dr Mandy Haggith and 14 contemporary Highland artists. This was a multi-media exhibition of artworks (including video, painting, etching, sculpture, textiles and ceramics) paired with poems. Dr Haggith said “Poets don’t normally get to have exhibitions, so this is hugely exciting for me, and I’m thrilled that we’re able to bring this rich mixture of art together in dialogue with my poetry. I live on the shore of a Loch in Assynt where trees meet sea and it’s a place of immense creative energy for me.” An elegant pamphlet of the poems and artworks, designed by Gerry Cambridge, is available from Mandy’s website here.
The Green Room provides a space for PhD students and artists in residence. An example of this was Sensorial Botanies an interdisciplinary research project led by Désirée Coral (Research artist in residence) and Anna Fink exploring different types of knowledge that can be experienced in the Garden.
Find out more about the Garden here.