Morven Museum & Garden is pleased to present the 2023 Grand Homes & Gardens Speaker Series: Trailblazers and Trendsetters. Join us as we explore the people and spaces, past and present, who cultivated new opportunities and inspired breakthrough trends for future generations of landscape architects, designers, entrepreneurs, and horticulturalists. Today, these places continue the work of preserving historic and natural landscapes for public benefit and community engagement. The 2023 series will feature Manitoga, Villa Lewaro, Beauport – The Sleeper McCann House, and Bartram’s Garden.
This year’s Grand Homes & Gardens Speaker Series Sponsor is Hiltons Princeton.
On Wednesday, February 22, the series kicks off with an examination of designer Russel Wright’s trendsetting mid-century aesthetic through the lens of his iconic home, Manitoga. This program is sponsored by David Schure & Grant Wagner of Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty.
Russel Wright and his wife Mary shaped modern American design through their iconic dinnerware, furniture, and home accessories ultimately impacting how many Americans organized and lived in their homes in the mid-twentieth century. Manitoga, Wright’s 1960s home in Garrison, New York, stands alone as an iconic and idiosyncratic example of eco-sensitive modernist architecture. The home’s 75-acre woodland garden, a reclaimed quarry restored to its “natural setting,” is a key illustration of the ecological aesthetic in landscape architecture.
Speaker Vivian Linares, Director of Collections, Interpretation, and Preservation at Manitoga, will explore Russel and Mary Wright’s contributions to American design and the home’s representation of their trendsetting aesthetic.
All programs will be offered in a hybrid format allowing participants to join in-person or virtually. Tickets are available for individual programs or as series tickets including all four weeks of programming. To register for series tickets, please visit this page. Ticket prices range from $30 (individual) to $90 (series). General public virtual series price is $70 for all four programs.
The in-person program includes light refreshments featuring a cocktail and mocktail inspired by each week’s featured site. Online participants will receive recipes to make the featured cocktail and mocktail at home.
Programs begin at 6:30 p.m. Doors and the virtual waiting room open at 6:00 p.m. A Zoom link will be sent to all virtual participants upon registration.
