CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Krannert Art Museum will soon display a different kind of artwork. Its annual Petals & Paintings exhibition takes place April 11-12, with an opening gala April 10. The exhibition will feature 21 floral designs that complement or respond to a piece of artwork in the museum.
A floral design in the 2012 Petals & Paintings exhibition at Krannert Art Museum reflects the colors and shape of a glass sculpture. A floral arrangement by local florist Rick Orr for the 2013 Petals & Paintings exhibition at Krannert Art Museum was inspired by a painting of an ocean. Photos courtesy Krannert Art Museum
Petals & Paintings is a museum fundraiser organized by the Krannert Art Museum Council, the all-volunteer organization that supports the museum. This year, the event also celebrates the council’s 50th year.
Museum Director Kathleen Harleman and local florist Rick Orr – who is curator for the exhibition – chose the artwork and provided images to the florists who are designing the floral pieces. Orr said they try to choose artwork from throughout the museum so visitors will see all the galleries.
“The things I look for in choosing works of art are color and texture and rhythm and motion – the things florists do in their everyday work. That’s how one art form complements the other,” Orr said.
“They’re all so different, from a landscape in the Old Masters gallery section, as opposed to the Andy Warhol piece (a portrait by Marlene Dumas) and a mask in the African room,” he said. “They all lend themselves to a variety of interpretations.”
Julia Kelly, the museum’s communications and marketing director, said the florists have free rein with their designs.
“Sometimes they do something that replicates a theme in the artwork, or sometimes they do something that is responding to it. Sometimes they will take a detail of a painting and reflect it in the floral design,” Kelly said.
Orr will create a floral piece based on an Old Master landscape. The painting includes a depiction of a water feature in the forefront of the landscape, and he plans to use a mirror to pick up the effect of the water in the painting.
The exhibition is during the U. of I.’s Moms Weekend, and more than 2,000 people come through the museum to see the floral designs, said Gloria Rainer, a member of the Krannert Art Museum Council and co-chair of the Petals & Paintings event.
“For some people, it’s an introduction to the museum as well,” Rainer said. “It’s a way for them not only to see the flowers, but also to see the art collection at the university.”
The council supports the museum in various ways, Rainer said, but mainly in educational initiatives and programming. Half of the money raised at last year’s Petals & Paintings was used to support KAM-WAM, the “Week at the Museum” program for fourth- and fifth-grade students. The other half went toward updating the decorative arts gallery on the museum’s lower level, including new lighting and redesigned display cases.
Rainer said the council also supports restoration of pieces of art and maintains the Gelvin Gardens in front of the museum.
Sculptor Fletcher Burton of San Francisco, who designed the “China Moon II” sculpture on display outside the Peabody Drive entrance to the museum, donated a sculpture that will be sold in a sealed-bid auction. There also will be a silent auction of items donated from local businesses, restaurants and individuals. A list of those items is available on the event’s website.
Opening the same weekend is the Master of Fine Arts Exhibition, featuring the work of 11 MFA candidates. The exhibition opens April 11 with a public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. and continues through May 2. The exhibition will include student work in metalwork, industrial design, video, sculpture, painting, graphic design and photography.
The works presented are the culmination of three years of research by the MFA candidates, who also have written theses and presented their work to an advisory committee. Patrick Earl Hammie, a professor in the School of Art and Design and coordinator of the exhibition, said the students’ theses are not just self-expression, “they delve into contemporary and past histories and to find how and where their voices can add to and complicate those conversations.”
More information about Petals & Paintings is available online, or email Julia Kelly at jkell@illinois.edu.
Information about the Master of Fine Arts Exhibition is available online also.
