(My blog title says “Rochester Art Review” but I’ve spent months now talking about gardens, art and events in North Carolina. Should I rename the site? Reopen a second one that deals strictly with “the south?” Does it matter?)
I took a side trip to Asheville last week. It’s a beautiful small city in the Smokey Mountains steeped in surprising architectural richness, a deep history of both traditional and contemporary art and crafts, and a liberal acceptance of racial and sexual diversity. The University of North Carolina has a large campus in Asheville: there’s a major teaching hospital that’s always expanding. The Biltmore is there – the closest “castle” we have on the U.S. eastern seaboard (open to the public, still in the private hands of a Vanderbilt whose family built this estate) with grounds designed by Frederick Law Olmstead - one of his grandest achievements along with Central Park, NYC.
A newer attraction in Asheville is the North Carolina Arboretum.
The arboretum was planned during the 1980’s, built in the late 1990’s, and added to every year since – the newest room/garden, the Bonsai Exhibition Garden, was installed in 2005.
I love visiting gardens and I especially adore stonework. North Carolina is full of stone; it gets used often and well and in this arboretum, the stonework is magnificent. I don’t know of many projects built since the 1930s WPA projects that have featured such beautiful stonework – evidence of so much hand labor – or such top quality materials showcased in a public project.
But (here it comes!), it costs over $5 million to keep the gates open (according to its 2008 annual report) and 58% of that $ comes from the state of NC. If my calculations are correct, for every person who stops to visit (entrance fee is $8), NC taxpayers shell out approx. $15. This at a time when the State is nearly broke and libraries and schools are closing.
What bothered me even more was the nagging feeling that this garden was simply not appropriate for its setting. Really now, how can a prissy little patch of annuals compete with the grandeur of those mountains? Yes, there are hiking trails but the area is sitting astride one of our nation’s ultimate hiking trails. Presumably, part of the goal of this venture is to teach students natural history of the region (Bonsai? A part of the regional history?) And ecology but everywhere I looked, I saw the result of continuing intensive labor – pruning, pollarding, pleaching.
I’ve often been at the front of the line pleading for beauty, art, and good design in public spaces. With that advocacy must come responsibility: appropriateness to setting and history both past and future. Where is Olmstead when you most need that vision?
