The Shirley Sherwood Gallery
of Botanical Art is Now Open
Gallery Closures:
Please note, the exhibition space
will be closed to
visitors on 3, 4 and 17–21 August 2009
Admission
The Gallery is free and entry is included with a ticket
to the gardens.
Opening times
9.30am-5pm until 28 March 2009
9.30am-5.30pm 29 March 2009 onwards
Contact
For more information on the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of
Botanical Art pleae email shirleysherwoodgallery@kew.org
Our programme of exhibitions will change three times a year.
During the changeover, sections of the gallery will always
remain open, so whenever you visit the Shirley Sherwood Gallery
of Botanical Art there will always be Botanical
Illustrations on display.
About the Gallery
The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, opened in
2008, is the first gallery in the world to open year round
dedicated solely to botanical art.
The gallery showcases art from Kew's unique historic
collections as well as Dr Sherwood's contemporary collection
of botanical art. The two collections, which complement each
other, will allow Kew to show to the public many of its largely
unseen treasures and there will always be a changing selection
of contemporary works on exhibition from the Shirley Sherwood
Collection. The new gallery will become the world centre
of botanical art.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew holds one of the world's
greatest collections of botanical art, totalling over 200,000
items. Until now much of this material has remained hidden
in the Library at Kew, known only to a few, mainly due to
a lack of adequate exhibition space with proper climatic
control. The new Shirley Sherwood Gallery will now enable
visitors to Kew to see many precious and unique works of
art, by masters of botanical art such as Georg D. Ehret,
the Bauer brothers and Pierre-Joseph Redouté, together
with nineteenth century artists such as Walter Hood Fitch,
who was one of the most prolific botanical artists ever.
The controlled environment in the new gallery will also enable
Kew to collaborate with other institutions that hold rich
collections of botanical art such as the Chelsea Physic Garden,
Natural History Museum and many international libraries.
Dr Sherwood started collecting botanical art in 1990, her
first purchase was an orchid painted by artist Pandora Sellars.
During her worldwide travels she discovered many botanical
artists and she now has work from over two hundred artists
from over thirty countries and the collection continues to
grow. This is the eighteenth major exhibition of her collection
around the world and the second at Kew.
The building, designed by award-winning architects Walters
and Cohen, is intended to have minimum impact on the environment.
Heating and air conditioning have been designed to use a
fraction of the energy a conventional building would use;
special glass and blinds will automatically react to light - reducing
the running costs of the building and thus reducing Kew's
carbon footprint.
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Images
from Kew’s extensive archive available as prints and canvas.
Select a frame and have it delivered to your door.