Lara,
I volunteer at a 6 1/2 acre Japanese Garden in Los Angeles. The garden is voted one of the ten best Japanese Gardens in the Nation and is attached to and fed by a water reclamation plant. I am a docent, President of the Garden's Advisory Committee, and the Garden's public program coordinator. I have been designing, coordinating and implementing public programs for the Garden for the last 10 years. In addition, I worked at at the Huntington and it has a large Japanese Garden. I created programs and an interactive cart with Japanese activities for the Garden. I will be happy to help in any way. I have experience with growing audiences, marketing, and the like around all of the programming I have created for both institutions.
Best,
Michael
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Dear Lara, et al - I would like to enter this discussion and hear what you decide and what others recommend. We have no gardens, but a similar challenge. Our Asian Exhibition, which has been more-or-less permanent for 80 years is currently undergoing a complete re-installation and re-interpretation. It was titled the Vanderpoel Gallery of Oriental Art. The core of the collection was given in whole to the museum around 1934 by Emily Noyes Vanderpoel (1842-1939) after our director of the time, Hannah Sprague Dodge (1878-1963) pursued her. In the early years, there was minimal interpretation and what textiles and garments didn't fit into the gallery, Mrs. Dodge wore when she "instructed" students.
In the gallery itself, for decades, there was minimal labelling and virtually no mention of Mrs. Vanderpoel. Mrs. Vanderpoel never travelled to Asia, but lived in her Manhattan apartment surrounded by the objects, many installed permanently into architectural elements and wall coverings. We have recently been researching the collection and have learned a great deal about it. It has become clear that although Mrs. Vanderpoel trusted her dealers as to authenticity, they frequently took advantage of her. At the time we accepted the collection, the Asian population in Norwich, CT was either very small, or in the shadows. Now there is a large Asian population here, especially a Chinese community. We have had focus groups mostly of leaders of the latter, educators our docents. Our challenge is reaching the ordinary (usually immigrant) person who typically may not feel welcome in the museum, even though their children attend our parent institution, a high school.
We also feel strongly the need to celebrate Mrs. Vanderpoel who was a writer, artist, educator and historian.
As for your garden, it seems to me that your strongest advocates (and audiences) would be your local garden clubs, nurseries, etc...
Thanks for your thoughts! Vivian
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Vivian Zoë
Executive Director
Slater Memorial Museum
Norwich CT
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