Daily Archives: October 17, 2022

Wednesday, October 19, 12:00 noon – The Mysterious World of the Garden Grotto, Online

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Join Dr. Gerald and Margaret Hull for a virtual presentation taking attendees on a trip across the world exploring the origins of the garden grotto. Discover and discuss the meaning of these mysterious and unique spaces, and their translation to homes and estates in the United States, ultimately providing visual and historical context for Annis Stockton’s lost grotto at Morven. 

When Annis Boudinot Stockton established a terraced garden on Morven’s grounds in the 1760s, she added a grotto inspired by poet Alexander Pope’s gardens in England. Today, the location and design of Annis’ grotto is unknown. Explore the origins of the garden grotto in Europe, the meaning of these mysterious and unique spaces, and their translation to homes and estates in the United States. Speakers Dr. Gerald and Margaret Hull have spent the last fifteen years visiting and photographing over 300 grottoes, shell houses, and associated artifacts. Their presentation will take virtual attendees on a trip across the world ultimately providing visual and historical context for Annis’ lost grotto.

Dr. Gerald and Margaret Hull just released an extended version of their book Conchinilia Journey II: Shell Artists and Collectors. You can learn more by visiting: www.shellhouse-talks.com.

This Morven Museum program will be held virtually only. The Zoom webinar link will be shared via email prior to the event. A recording will be sent to those registered following the program. Free for Morven members, $5 for nonmembers. Register through Eventbrite HERE.

Monday, October 24, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – The Fabric of Flowers: The Embroiderer’s Floral, Online

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This is the last talk in the Gardens Trust’s online series exploring how flowers and gardens inspired textile artists.

This ticket (purchase HERE) is for this individual session and costs £5. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

Lecturer Janet Haigh says:

‘During recent Covid times, I returned to my original practice of stitching flowers onto fabric usually seen as garden portraits. Re-researching my old workbooks, I found delight and reassurance revisiting these earlier drawings, designs and techniques. I particularly enjoyed the hidden symbolism within my “Flora” series, which was inspired by the lengths that man has gone in the attempt to control and manipulate nature, and both the beauty and folly of the results. I imagined a journey from the Roman goddess “Flora”, an earthly “Paradise” and via “Tulipomania” to “Current Breeding Objectives”.

Recently I have stitched real bunches of garden flowers gifted to me during last year’s lockdowns. Made as celebratory embroideries during such difficult times, imagine my shock and utter delight to find that the ‘meanings’ of the beautiful Dahlias, Anemones, Hellebores and Achilleas, when checked against my much-thumbed dictionaries of the arcane “Language of Flowers”, are – instability, sickness, scandal and war’.

Janet Haigh studied Fashion and Textile at Liverpool art College in late 1960’s. Initially a fashion and textile designer in London, she took the post of Senior Lecturer in Textile Design at Bristol UWE. Later becoming a Senior Research Fellow developing textile techniques for other substrates. Janet then developed Heart Space Studios in Bristol, as a hub for teaching and exhibiting local textile practitioners. She has published many stitching books including The Embroiderer’s Floral (2002). Her work now is designing and making varied stitched textile-based work for exhibitions, commissions and publishers, and is at present developing a business to sell Giclee prints of her stitched works.

Sunday, October 23, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm – Historic Back Bay Walking Tour

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Join the ICAA New England, Historic Preservation Consultant William Young, and FAIA Patrick Ahearn for a stroll through Boston’s historic Back Bay and a discussion of the architectural styles that define the neighborhood. Along the way, Patrick and William will share some of their favorite urban renovation projects and new builds, and will explain the design details that blend them into the rich fabric of the city. This is a not-to-be-missed experience with an architect and preservationist whose hands helped revitalize and protect this historic area ending in coffee and croissants at a local bakery.

Celebrated as one of America’s top classical architects, Patrick Ahearn, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, began his career with ambitious adaptive-reuse public projects and for the past 25 years has focused primarily on historically motivated, site-sensitive private residences in New England and beyond. Whether carefully restoring century-old landmarked townhouses in Boston’s Back Bay or creating new homes that reimagine the local vernacular of Martha’s Vineyard, Ahearn demonstrates an unparalleled ability to combine the romance of traditional architecture with the ideals of modernism. With his work, he sensitively balances preservation with innovation to design residences that feel truly timeless. Raised in Levittown, New York, and based in Boston for the past four decades, he earned degrees in architecture and urban design from Syracuse University. Today, he oversees the firm that bears his name while also deftly drafting firsthand. Based in Boston and Edgartown, Patrick and his work have earned countless awards, and have been featured in publications including Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal, New England Home, and many more.

William Young’s lifelong interest in architectural history was sparked at an early age, growing up on the coast of Maine admiring local works by Richard Upjohn, John Calvin Stevens and McKim, Mead & White. After earning degrees in English from Boston College, he entered the Boston University graduate program in historic preservation; this led to more than two decades on the staff of the Boston Landmarks Commission, from which he retired as Director of Design Review. As an independent consultant, William now guides his clients to meet historic preservation regulations at the local, state and federal levels, while remaining active on the lecture and walking-tour circuit. His recent projects include residential renovations in the Back Bay and on Beacon Hill, and new-construction retail and life-sciences buildings on Newbury Street and in the South End. William has also served three times as a commercial juror for Traditional Building magazine’s Palladio Awards, most recently in 2022.

Tickets are $35. Meet the group at the George Washington Statue in the Boston Public Garden. Purchase tickets in advance at http://www.classicist-ne.org/events