ATTLEBORO — When visitors entered the Attleboro Museum of Art on a rainy Saturday afternoon, they were immediately greeted by the stunning fresh scent of flowers in the museum’s annual flower show featuring more than 180 artists and 236 works of art.
The nature-themed exhibition ‘Festivals Around the World: Gardens in Celebration’ also featured seven pieces of garden landscape art by local florists, each representing a country’s cultural celebration.
At the center of the gallery, the Holland Tulip Festival was a splash of yellow, purple and pink tulips, complemented by a wooden windmill by Oracle Landscaping and Lindsey Epstein Pottery, both based in Tiverton, Rhode Island
A few steps away, Ethical Earth Creators in Weymouth interpreted Mexico’s Day of the Dead, complete with a vividly dressed masked skeleton sitting in a rocking chair.
At the entrance to the Rosebud Florist Gallery in Pawtucket celebrated Irish St. Patrick with a garland of various green leaves and other flowers, including white carnations as foam for beer.
Other works of art include nature scenes with almost every aspect and detail, from landscapes, seascapes and wildlife.
Artist Tori Black of Medfield created a ceramic woodpecker on her perch titled “Backyard Baby,” while a watercolor by Betsy McDonald of Clayville, Rhode Island, aptly titled “Lion Around,” depicts a female lion lounging in a tree.
Another remarkable creation in the main gallery was that of a tarantula, which left museum staff and visitors alike in awe and awe.
Adding to the festivities were Illuminate Creative & Theatrical Arts Company puppeteers Kelly Bastien of Pawtucket and her son Noah, and Illuminate instructor Miriam Belli of Newton, who strolled through the gallery with a snail, a ladybug and a dragonfly, respectively.
It was nature’s varied details that inspired Hannah Guerra of Seekonk as she took photo after photo of the artwork around the gallery. Guerra has also volunteered at the museum in the past, she said.
“I like nature, so this is a good show for me to expand my creativity for art, nature and photography,” Guerra said.
Her father, Mark Warhol of Rehoboth, was fascinated by what was probably one of the most remarkable aspects of the exhibit.
“It smells like we’re outside in spring,” he said of the gallery’s permeating aroma.
The flower show also became a special event of a more personal kind for Mansfield artist Danen Grillo, whose textured, mixed-media series of artwork, Thelma and Louise, was shown at the gallery for the first time. Grillo brought her mother, Lonnie Grillo of Franklin, to the museum to surprise her with the exhibit.
“It’s so exciting; I’m excited,” Lonnie Grillo said.
What amazed museum executive director Mim Fawcett about this year’s exhibit was the amount of curiosity and learning that took place in her gallery as visitors studied the artistry of the landscape pieces.
What began as an intention to “honor global celebrations,” as Fawcett described the exhibit in 2024, turned into an educational element as patrons began further research into each country’s celebration on their cell phones.
“Typically, our topics don’t inspire Google searches,” Fawcett said.
This year, with the scent of flowers greeting customers as they stepped through the threshold, emotions seemed particularly excited by the promise of a new, brighter season.
“We’ve had worse winters, but it’s still very dark and very gray,” Fawcett said. “People are really excited to smell flowers and spring.”
The four-day show marked the first time since the pandemic that the museum was back at full capacity. There were no timed admissions and no capacity and social distancing restrictions.
That in itself was particularly inspiring for Fawcett and her team, given that not only had one of the wettest winters in recent years drenched the museum’s basement, but memories of the 2020 Flower Show still lingered . This year, the closure due to COVID-19 occurred the same week the show was scheduled, resulting in its cancellation at the last minute, with all of the painstakingly crafted exhibits having to be returned to the artists.
Of this year’s exhibit, Fawcett said, “The (artistic) executions seem to resonate with people because there are so many layers to each display … (artists) have gotten really creative with what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.”
Major sponsors of the show include the Attleboro Garden Club, the Bluestone Bank Charitable Fund, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Attleboro Rotary Club, among others.