Sept. 20: Creativity in the garden
UD Botanic Gardens to host presentation by artist, landscape architect
4:08 p.m., Aug. 15, 2011--Award-winning artist and landscape architect W. Gary Smith will present an evening of discovery and inspiration as he discusses “Unleashing Creativity in the Native Garden” on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 7 p.m., in the Townsend Hall Commons on the University of Delaware’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) campus.
Smith was an associate professor of landscape design at UD from 1989-98.
Events Stories
June 5: Blue Hen 5K
June 6-9: Food and culture series
The lecture is sponsored by the UD Botanic Gardens and is free for UDBG Friends members and $10 for nonmembers. Register by calling 320-831-2531 or by sending email to BotanicGardens@udel.edu.
Smith is an artist and landscape architect who celebrates connections between people and plants, combining art and horticulture to explore ecological design and artistic abstraction.
Current projects include the Santa Fe Botanical Garden, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Winterthur.
Recently completed works include the Southern Highlands Reserve, Texas Arboretum, conservatory gardens at Callaway Gardens and Tyler Arboretum’s Wister Rhododendron Garden.
Smith received a Gold Medal award from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, as well as their Award of Distinction. His work at Longwood Gardens was honored with a Design Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.
He received two awards from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers in 2011 for his "Art Goes Wild" exhibit at the New England Wild Flower Society’s Garden in the Woods, and for his work at Innisfree, a private estate in Middleberg, Va.
Most recently, Smith was the recipient of two awards from the American Horticultural Society – the only recipient to win two awards in the same year. His book From Art to Landscape received the society's book award, and he is also the winner of its 2011 Great American Gardeners Award for Landscape Design, given to an individual whose work has demonstrated and promoted the value of sound horticultural practices in the field of landscape architecture.