'Our Plants - Past, Present and Future'
O Tātou Tipu o Mua - o Ināianei me te Āpōpō'
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
2024
1st September 2024 - Submissions open
22nd November 2024 5pm - Submissions close
5th December 2024 onwards - Selected Artists notified
2025
24th – 27th March - Receiving days for selected works -
Saturday 29th March - Opening of Auckland exhibition
Sunday 18th May - World Day of Botanical Art -
Saturday/Sunday 17/18th May - Weekend of Botanical Art
29th June - Auckland Exhibition closes
1st August – 30th September - Wellington Botanic Gardens
17th October – 7th December - Ashburton Art Gallery
7th December - Exhibition ends, all work returned to Auckland
BASNZ and The Friends of Auckland Botanic Gardens are delighted to announce that following the huge success of Botanical Art Worldwide exhibition in 2018, there will be another Botanical Art Worldwide in 2025.
The theme for this exhibition is ‘Crop Diversity’. The American Society of Botanical Artist’s steering committee for the Botanical Art Worldwide decided on the theme and say -
‘The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project will focus on and celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years. The theme is designed to draw attention to the vast variety of food and useful plants available, in contrast with the relatively few varieties currently used in mass cultivation. Plants eligible for inclusion are those cultivated for food, textiles, building, energy, and medicine.
Currently, many heritage species and varieties are only cultivated in small quantities by specialist growers on a limited scale. It is vital to promote this genetic diversity in a world challenged by a growing population, changing climate, and habitat losses.’
www.botanicalartworldwide.info; February 2022
What’s Next
At present we are looking for expressions of interest from botanical artists and illustrators living in NZ and New Zealand citizens living abroad.
All 2D media, except photography and digital artwork, will be accepted.
All artwork will need to conform to botanical art conventions - that is, as botanically accurate as your medium will allow.
Final artwork will be needed by November 2024, when, as last time it will go before the selection committee.
Please read the information about what is meant by botanical art and the theme before expressing your interest.
If possible we would like to have an idea of what plant or plant family you intend to enter with. As it is a juried exhibition a carefully chosen plant may give you a better chance of success. There are always some obvious, more popular plants so choosing a less popular one may be to your advantage as we wish to have a large variety of plants on display.
All correspondence regarding this exhibition should be emailed to baww25nz@gmail.com
General Information
Terms and Conditions
Useful websites -
The Heritage Food Crop Research Centre in Whanganui is a great source of information
‘Kōanga’ is home to a large collection of heritage food crops based in Wairoa, Northern hawkes Bay
‘Sentinels Group’ are a collective of New Zealand based hobby growers offering heirloom and locally adapted seed lines for sale.
Riverton Environment Centre is home to the South Coast Environment Society, which heads a number of community and environment initiatives in the Southland Region of New Zealand. They have a page for identifying heritage apples and a seed savers page where you can find out more about heritage seeds suitable for growing in the south of NZ.
Useful Videos
Riverton Food Forest tour with Robert and Robyn Guyton - one of many videos about their food forest.
Here are a couple of films but more videos can be found on the
New York Botanic Gardens website here