Events And Programs
Art Exhibitions
Awbury Arboretum regularly hosts free public art exhibitions featuring local artists, both within the parlors of the Francis Cope House and outside in the Arboretum’s landscape.
The galleries of the Cope House are regularly hung with revolving shows and are open in Spring-Fall 2022: Monday through Thursday, 10:00am – 4:00pm, Sat-Sun 10am-2pm (unless there is an event at the Cope House). (Please see our Hours and Admission page for holiday closings, etc.)
The grounds of the Arboretum are open every day, dawn to dusk.
Coming soon/Now on View:
Verdant Visions
a collective exhibition featuring select works by members of the Awbury Arboretum Art Committee
On display May 3 through June 26, 2022
Join us for an Opening & Artist’s Reception on Sunday, May 5th, 5:00–7:00 PM.
Artist Bios/Statements:
Betsey Batchelor is an artist and teacher who lives and works in Philadelphia. She received her MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA in Painting at The University of the Arts (Philadelphia College of Art). Her work has been shown at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, Dartmouth College, Swarthmore College, Arcadia University, and the Jessica Berwind Gallery, Jeffrey Fuller Fine Art, and the Matthews Hamilton Gallery in Philadelphia. She is the recipient of grants from both the Pennsylvania State Council on the Arts and Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. Betsey is a MacDowell Colony Fellow. Batchelor says “The most interesting place to be is between. The state of not knowing, not naming, of becoming and not yet being holds a particular energy. I am fascinated with how the small and intimate world of the everyday, the known and particular, sit within a larger, expansive, and mysterious world that resists knowing through touch or measure. Shape, with it’s boundaries, contours and gesture, offers a metaphor for the limits of our ability to know a world that goes beyond the reach of our senses.”
Iman Jones says “Simple shapes laid in an unspecific or set pattern that creates an intricate mosaic design that allows you, the viewer, to get lost in the details. That’s how I would describe my mosaic paintings. I create them with the hope to give someone a chance to interpret each individual piece differently upon viewing them over multiple times. The paintings are done on a multitude of surfaces, from paper and canvas, to wood and glass. I’ve created pieces for walls but also I’ve made pieces to be used as artistic furniture. I encourage you to take the time to get lost in my remixed vision of what mosaics are and can be.”
Julie Kring received a B.S. from Kutztown University and an M. Ed. From Penn State University, both in the field of Art Education with concentrations in Aesthetic Education and Museum Education. As an art educator for over 30 years, Julie has taught in public and private schools in Coatesville, Philadelphia, Camden, NJ and Seattle WA. Since 2012 she has enjoyed pursuing her own art career in painting and printmaking, exhibiting her work with The Cheltenham Printmaker’s Guild andThe American Color Print Society, along with two individual shows in 2017 and this 2020. Her work has received the Printmaker’s Award at the Annual Cheltenham Center of the Arts Members Show in 2013 and 2015 and the Stella Drabkin Award from the American Color Print Society in 2016. Julie is the co-founder of Artful Devotion, a program offering retreats and workshops for groups interested in discovering ways to enhance their spiritual practice through art making.
Richard Metz is a 62-year-old Philadelphia based artist, husband, father, former art teacher, writer, and activist with a focus on environmental issues. He has been showing work mostly in the Philadelphia/NY area for forty years. He graduated from Tyler School of Art, and received an MFA from Maine College of Art in 2000. His artwork since then has included drawing, printmaking, painting, illustrated stories, sculpture, indoor and outdoor installations, performance and theater. Much of the work can be seen on his website: mistermetz.com. Metz says “Art making is to me ecologically, about the process, about my choices of where to make work, what to use, why make it, and what do I want my work to say….The choice to depict animals and birds in a portrait-like manner is to attempt to decenter humans. What if we aren’t the most important creatures on the planet, just the most deadly?”
Outdoor Paintings by Ann Hopkins Wilson
We invite you to walk the Beech Hollow Trail to see the outdoor paintings posted in the beech grove.
On display April 22 through October 31, 2022
Artist Bio:
Ann Hopkins Wilson received her MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. Her undergraduate work was a double major in Art and Biology from the University of Delaware. Ann has been a professional artist for over 40 years, exhibiting regularly throughout the region. She taught Fine Arts at various institutions and art centers including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Bryn Mawr College and Temple University for fifteen years. Following this, she worked as an art therapist for over 20 years.
An abstract painter for many years, focused on universal geometric patterns binding nature and man, her work has recently moved to incorporate animal imagery. It is an urgent response to the depletion of species and habitats locally and worldwide. The paintings are prayers to protect, honor and preserve our natural world.
Artist Statement:
Working intuitively as an artist often makes it difficult to find words that will illuminate the art. The end result is a painting I can show you. It is a record of an activity that has occurred over time, sometimes months. It has often been a struggle. It is this action that is the art, not the actual painting. The painting is the witness to a journey and exploration. The painting hopes to provide a journey for others, but it will be their journey.
The art process for me is an attempt to move beneath consciousness into our core of being that moves deeply back towards our creation. There is reverence, joy, fear and awe. There is an urgent and impossible pull to grasp the interconnectedness of all life. With this, my most recent work has moved to touch other beings we share the earth with.
Past Exhibitions:
Wild Gardens and the Birds That Love Them – with Julie Zahn (2022)
Up Against a Wall – curated by Susan Breitsch (2021)
Blackberry Winter – with Jonathan Eckel (2021)
When I Am Among the Trees – with Julie Kring (2020)
Recent Works by Andrew Christman (2020)
Papercuts – with Jonathan Greenberg (2019)
Regressive Continuities – with Charles Emlen (2019)
Making Space @Awbury – with The Colored Girls Museum (2019)
From Cotton to Quilts – with Sharon Tindall (2019)
Photographs with Iman Jones (2018)
Garden Life Through a Lens – with the Awbury Pollinator Habitat Gardeners (2018)
The Mythic Moth Menagerie and A Night in the Enchanted Woods – with Richard Metz (2018)
Botanically Inspired and Found: Pollinators at Awbury Arboretum – with Karen Singer (2018)
Nature Transformed – with Carol Philips (2017)
Northwest POST Artists (2017)
Creature Comforts – with Arcadia University and Wissahickon Charter School (2017)
Botanical Illustrations – with Marylyn Waltzer (2016)
Alaska and Maine Painting – with Cathy Hozack (2016)
Centennial Shine – with Jared Wood and Rachel Ehrgood (2016)
A Retrospective – with Lucretia Robbins (2015)
Curious Creatures – with Arcadia University and Project Learn School (2015)
Flora Fantastica – with MF Cardamone (2015)
Meditative Mediations – with Carole Loeffler & Maryann Worrell (2015)
Heteromorphic Botanicals – with Kathleen Kelly (2013)
Are you a local artist interested in featuring your artwork at Awbury? Contact our Arts Advisory Committee at artcommittee@awbury.org.