Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is celebrating a major milestone with a stunning new exhibition blending art, nature, and motion at its Downtown Sarasota bayfront campus.
The gardens are marking the 10th anniversary of the annual Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series with "Alexander Calder: The Nature of Movement," on view through May 31, 2026.
Jennifer Rominiecki, President and CEO of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, joined us to discuss the exhibition and what visitors can expect.
The Goldstein Exhibition Series presents the work of major artists and their connection to nature in the context of a botanical garden. Each exhibition combines original artworks in the galleries of the Richard and Ellen Sandor Museum of Botany & the Arts with horticultural vignettes inspired by the featured artists throughout the Display Conservatory and the outdoor gardens of the 15-acre Downtown Sarasota campus. The vignettes make use of Selby Gardens' living plant collections and its bayfront setting.
Calder's work holds particular significance for the Selby Gardens team. His fascination with energy and motion, along with his exploration of suspension and equilibrium, provides creative inspiration for the dynamic display of epiphytes, or air plants. Selby Gardens is a leading center for the study of air plants and is home to the best scientifically documented collections of living epiphytic orchids and bromeliads in the world.
The exhibition highlights Calder's use of abstract forms that resonate with nature. It also explores his fascination with the circus, stemming from his studies of performers and animals at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1925 — a subject of particular local interest. Sarasota became the winter quarters of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1927.
For more information, visit Selby.org.
