Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Art Museum

There is a striking irony to the annual “Art in Bloom” exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum. Lasting only three days, from Friday, Feb. 27 to Sunday, March 1, the exhibition juxtaposes ancient artworks with floral masterpieces that barely survive through the weekend. Oftentimes, the artists even have to replace and refresh parts of their design multiple times throughout the weekend, because the flowers wilt quickly. Once the exhibition is over, the arrangements are deconstructed, the blooms disposed of, reused if possible, but are usually too withered to be repurposed.  Overall, the exhibition is the embodiment of transience. 

“That’s part of the magic of ‘Art in Bloom,'” Director of Learning and Engagement at SLAM, Amanda Thompson Rundahl, said.

Each ephemeral floral arrangement is inspired by and paired with a permanent piece from the museum, many of which are well over a thousand years old. Every year, the museum chooses 30 pieces from its collection, then opens applications to floral designers in the St. Louis area, who will randomly be assigned a piece to inspire their floral creation. In addition, the museum has a featured display in the Sculpture Hall that tends to be the centerpiece of the exhibition; this year’s arrangement is by New York-based floral designer Rachel Cho. Rundahl organizes and curates the event each year.

 “We’re trying to select artworks that we haven’t featured before, [or] at least they haven’t recently been featured. They need to be diverse in terms of the makers, the time periods, and the materials that they’re made from, and the subject matter and all those sorts of things that they highlight,” Rundahl said. She also mentioned that the process for organizing “Art in Bloom” begins almost as soon as the previous year’s exhibition is complete.

SLAM’s “Art in Bloom” began in 2000, though due to several missed years — particularly because of  COVID — this year’s exhibition will be the 20th “Art in Bloom.” Rundahl explained that museums around the country put on similar exhibitions, which is where SLAM got the idea. 

“The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is really credited with having originated this concept in the mid-1970s. And there are notes in our museum records of staff here thinking about perhaps starting one here over a number of years in the 1990s, and then ultimately in the year 2000, the first one was hosted,” Rundahl said.

At SLAM, “Art in Bloom” began as an invitational event with only around 7,000 attendees. The exhibition expanded several years back, becoming an open call to any floral designers within a 100-mile radius of St. Louis, and last year’s celebration saw over 30,000 attendees.

“We can really feature and highlight the breadth and range of the museum’s global art collection. One of the really wonderful things about “Art in Bloom” is people who come year after year and tell us that they love that it helps them find or discover new artworks in the museum,” Rundahl said.

St. Louis-based floral designer Darien Burress, who uses she/they pronouns, is participating in “Art in Bloom” for the fourth year and described the process of receiving which the piece they would model their design after. 

“We never really know the options going in… [The museum] wants visitors to experience every aspect of the museum, go in every corridor, experience each type of art. And so when [the artists] go in for orientation … you just blindly choose a piece of artwork.”

This year, Burress was paired with “Banquet Scene with a Lute Player,” an oil-on-canvas painting by French late baroque painter Nicolas Tournier. They mentioned that they were initially slightly disappointed by their assigned piece this year, as she was aiming for a more abstract work with lots of colors, rather than a realistic portrait. 

“It’s something I know I can execute. It’s something that feels like it’s within my wheelhouse. And what I typically enjoy about “Art in Bloom” is that I like pushing myself outside of my comfort zone,” Burress said. 

However, after sitting with the piece a bit longer, Burress came up with new ways to make the process more challenging. 

“I’m not designing in the way I traditionally would,” they said. “I’m incorporating some unique elements to kind of give it more depth and more intrigue.”

For this year’s “Art in Bloom,” Burress focused on interpreting the realistic baroque style into a more abstract work that highlights the emotive and artistic context of “Banquet Scene with Lute Player.”

“I like to pull out what feels most important about it, whether that is conveying an emotion, whether that is form or subject or time, whatever that may be, that’s what I look for,” they explained. “In the baroque style of painting, light and darkness is really important, and so for me, this year, one of the elements I’m really focusing on is tenebrism and chiaroscuro.”

The painting’s context and style also informs Burress’s choice of material. “I’m using a lot of more traditional style of florals because that’s what I’ve experienced and seen within the Baroque era of painting. And so you’ll see a lot of roses in my piece, a lot of hydrangeas, things like that, carnations, more traditional blooms,” Burress said. 

For this year’s work, Burress decided to combine her fine arts background, especially in sculpture, with her floral design skills. 

“What you notice most about the painting is you, as the viewer, are interacting with the subjects. And so we have the lute player, we have the woman at the dining table, we have the two men there. … So I’ll be focusing on creating something that’s very sculptural, and kind of mimics the form that’s highlighted by these figures within the painting.”

To Burress, the beauty of “Art in Bloom” is that it offers them the ability to combine their fine arts background with their career in floristry. She is also deeply appreciative of the community element of “Art in Bloom.” 

“It’s an incredible weekend, an opportunity to connect with new people to build connections and to experience joy together, no matter where people are coming from, no matter their walk of life, no matter their background … and then you’re getting a whole new side of art while you’re there.”“Art in Bloom” opens at SLAM on Friday, Feb. 27th, and includes various events, such as a live demonstration by Rachel Cho from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, and a ticketed 21+ event on Saturday called “Flowers After Hours.” All other events are free and don’t require tickets.