Student Art Blossoms with Live Floral Designs
February 14, 2025
• Floral arrangements will complement a range of student artwork for the 2025 iteration of Art in Bloom, slated for the Needham Free Public Library on March 8 and 9.
Punxsutawney Phil predicted a few more weeks of winter, but Needham will usher in an early spring with its annual Art in Bloom showcase.
Alongside 50 artworks by Needham High School students, the Beth Shalom Garden Club will create flower arrangements inspired by their paintings, sculptures, photographs, mixed media and other art forms. Each piece of art and its corresponding arrangement will be displayed together.
During a workshop earlier this month, members of the garden club practiced snipping, plucking and prodding their flowers and greenery to complement a piece of art, which some of them brought from home. Piles of fallen leaves and petals cluttered around their tables, signaling their time commitment and eye for detail.
Chicken feathers in one painting translated to bundles of baby’s breath. A mother and child’s orange clothing popped next to orange pincushion flowers.
However inspiration strikes, “you’ve just gotta feel it,” Garden Club Vice President Christine Sampson said.
“With interpretations, you can just go wild. Nothing’s right, and nothing’s wrong. It’s how you see it,” Sampson said. “It’s art in floral form.”
Needham’s Art in Bloom started 17 years ago thanks to Sue Kaplan, a garden club member who passed away in October. Kaplan’s photo, accompanied by flower arrangements, will serve as a memorial for her at the showcase. Temple Beth Shalom also accepts donations through the Sue Kaplan Art in Bloom Fund, which benefits the annual event. Several arrangements will also be up for auction.
Before the workshop, Fawn Hurwitz led a demonstration on the principles of design, using her own Mondrian-inspired arrangement. The blocks of primary colors, divided by black lines, reflected her own sections of colorful flowers in a painted square vase.
Since joining the club more than a decade ago, Hurwitz said Art in Bloom fuels a passion. She said she’s considering a dried floral arrangement this year — especially considering how hot the library can get.
“My whole house is filled with a lot of crap,” Hurwitz said, “because when you do this, you save every little twig and pebble.”
Hurwitz advised participants to think about placement, choose a diversity of colors, lengths and textures, and avoid “bunny ears” — when two pieces stick out.
As an interior designer, Linda Weisberg’s work and gardening hobby often collide. As she prepares her own arrangement, Weisberg taps into a feeling the art provokes or what she loves about the art. Color, shape and form follow, she said.
Weisberg, who leads the garden club, said there’ll be a concerted effort to connect the arrangers with their respective artists from NHS this year.
“I’ve seen the art, and the pieces are really good,” Weisberg said. “The kids are talented.”
The club hopes to find 50 people to pair with the 50 artworks, though occasionally participants will create two to three unique arrangements each, Sampson said. Temple Beth Shalom receives support from the Needham Garden Club and Kalmia Garden Club, she added.
For its Art in Bloom display last year, the garden club estimates close to 2,700 people attended. The library doubles as both a warm refuge and living artistic display, Hurwitz said.
“People look forward to it every year,” Hurwitz said.
In a past life, Sampson worked in corporate finance — a field that offered little (legal) creativity, she joked. Flower arrangement awakened her artistic side, she said.
“It’s a big departure for me, and I like it,” she said. “I kind of get into the zone when I design. It’s a nice way to relax.”
In her arrangements, Weisberg is partial to “big, beautiful, round things”: hydrangeas, peonies and dahlias, to name a few. Art in Bloom encompasses joy in its purest form, she said.
“It’s a happy thing,” Weisberg said. “It’s art and flowers and the beginning of spring.”
