Art in the Garden

With the opening of the new Modern Wing and the Nichols Bridgeway at the Art Institute of Chicago, a new program for school children was created by the staffs of the AIC and Lurie Garden. Through the Art & Garden Tour, students can explore the ways in which artist and landscape architects use similar design elements in their work.

First, students spend time with museum educators looking at landscape paintings from the collection of the AIC and discussing the techniques artists use to interpret the natural world. The students then walk across the footbridge to the Lurie Garden and spend time with naturalists in the garden, examining the similar characteristics in landscape design and looking at the garden as a work of art.

Sixteen students from McCracken Middle School joined us in the garden this morning. They are all members of the Garden Club, spending one day each week this summer to care for the vegetables they planted. When the crop is ready for harvest, they will donate the food to a local food bank. These young gardeners recognized many of the plants in the Lurie Garden and were eager to learn about the various design elements used here. They were especially interested in those plants that attract butterflies, since they will soon be creating a butterfly garden at McCracken.