Glass orchid show at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

If you will be traveling to the Boston/Cambridge MA area in the next few months be sure to add this to your itinerary.

Glass Orchids by glass artist Siobhan Healy opens December 2 at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

Opening Friday, December 2 in the Blaschka Glass Flowers Gallery will be a sculpture display by Scottish artist Siobhan Healy entitled Ghost Orchids. The inspiration for the artist's subtle and thought-provoking piece is the Ghost Orchid (Epipogium aphyllum), a rare British wild flower recently rediscovered after it was thought to be extinct for 23 years. Healy depicts the orchid in transient and ethereal clear glass, encouraging the viewer to reflect on the potential loss of this fragile species—an evocative emblem of the one in five of wild flowers that are threatened with extinction. The glass artist will present a talk on Friday December 2 at 4:00 pm, open to the public, and included with regular museum admission. Ghost Orchids will be on display through March 4, 2012. Free parking for the artist's talk available in the 52 Oxford Street parking garage adjacent to the museum.

About the artist:

Siobhan Healy works with glass and light to create her unique artworks. She has received several awards, most recently the Creative Development Award from the Scottish Arts Council-Creative Scotland. Healy specializes in architectural glass commissions for public buildings and also sculptural artworks for galleries and public spaces. Her work is in collections in the UK, India, USA and Dubai. Siobhan Healy also has been a consultant and demonstrated glass-making processes on several BBC television programs.

there is a gallery for GLASS FLOWERS? Geez, you Americans have it all!

Yes we do and they are AMAZING. They were made by a German father and son, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, used for teaching botany at Harvard University. They were made over five decades beginning in 1887. When you first start to look at them you don't believe they are made of glass, it takes a bit of time before your eye adjusts to the material and you begin to actually "see" the glass. Somewhere there is also a sea life collection made by the same father/son team. There are over 4,000 glass specimens in the collection. It is so fantastic it should be a "must see" on everyone's list should they ever visit the Boston area.

martha

Martha, I know I saw these featured on I think either the Smithsonian or maybe a PBS channel. They were breath-taking! Absolutely taxonomically correct down to the slightest detail. If I remember correctly they also featured glass poison dart frogs that were know to inhabit certain species of orchids.