By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Editor
2025 is the 16th year of Needham’s Art in Bloom. This exhibit was molded after the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston’s annual spring Art in Bloom presentation.
Inspired by garden club members Sue Kaplan and Allison Shapiro, the Beth Shalom Garden Club aimed to create a community event that brought together individuals of all ages, interests, and backgrounds, and so the annual event began. In order to bring residents of all ages together, garden club members are paired with artwork created by Needham High School students for floral interpretation.
This years exhibit was held at the Needham Free Public Library with a variety of art mediums explore by the talented Needham High School art students. The mediums explored included: photography, mosaic design, soft-sculpture banquet, still life, narrative collage, ceramics, abstracted landscape, for example. The floral arrangements that were perfectly paired with each piece of artwork, was created either by a Needham Garden Club member or a Beth Shalom Garden Club member.
Just outside of the room that held the exhibit, there was a beautiful arrangement of lily roses, delphinium, carnations, trachelium, alstroemeria, cuscus, and pittosporum arranged by Karen Gorton paired with an architectural drawing and design by Angela Wang in memory of Sue Kaplan, the women who helped to inspire the beginnings of Needham Art in Bloom. Kaplan was an artist and professional flower designer who had participated in the MFA’s Art in Bloom Program. Thanks to the efforts of Kaplan in 2009 when she recruited young artists from Needham High School as well as Needham’s three garden clubs, The Beth Shalom Garden Club, Needham Garden Club, and Kalmia Garden Club, this beloved tradition has carried on ever since. Kaplan unfortunately passed away in 2024, though her memory will live on through this annual Needham tradition.
The floral arrangements were created by: Frun Caplan & Peggy Lowenstein, Amy Liss, Elisa Frederick, Karen Shapiro, Judy Jacobs, Karen Gorton, Carol Gershman, Diana Garcia-Marlinez, Chari Dalsheim, Nuncy Yablonski, Debra Kraft, Diana Conroy, Lauren Kinghorn, Fubienne Madsen & Cathy Flaherty, Jane Brand, Ruth Feinberg, Gloria Robertson, Lauren Kinghorn, Lyn Jekowsky & Terry Luskin, Lisa Pearlstein, Penny Gordon, Linda Weisberg, Dianne Coleman, Marcy Goldberg, Florence Weener, Valerie Flynn, Barbara Kopans, “Jane Brand’, Beth Puisner, Anne Carlson & Karen Head, Debra Kraft, Diana Conroy, Jeunne Rubenson, Anne Carlson, Beth Shulman, Charlene Zion, Christine Sampson, Susan Condon, Laura Rossinow, Lori Hall, Myrna Zakarian, Lisa Burns & Ellen Barnes, Barbura Hauschka, Carol Gershman, Cici Connelly, Moy Burns, Myru St. Amand, Gail Bor. Fawn Hurwitz, and Marina Sokolovu.
The pieces of art were created by Needham High School Art students Josephine Calzadr, Mary Mackintosh, Sofia Lopez, Lillian Soulia,Yuna Roeglin, Angela Wang, Ryan Brassard, Frances Dunn, Isabel Siegel, Ron Ozeri, Brandon Lopez, Micah Rosin, Kenley Myers, Max Cooper, Emma Kenneally, Caroline Mahar, Audrey Sprott, Jasmine Lee, Hannah Beaser, Hannah Zalkowitz, Grace Flanagan, Colton Harjula, Sloane Scidman
Connor Droncy , Max Cassel-Vogt , Scarlett Cassel-Vogt, Megan Truong, Easton Sun, Amelia Ung, Perla Santiago, Chloe Crable, Evan Meloni, Serena Tanna & Luci Salvia, Lex M Brett-Fleegler, Maisie Berger, Tessa Jones, Vancezah Khan, Polina Malikova, Ayla-Ryann Thompson, Madle inher, Zach Raley, Jane Raskin & Lillian Duan, Caroline Calton, Conor O'Brien, Ananya Phatak, Ma Wigde, Aislin Flahert, Miles Nanda, and Yalis Agudelo.
Congratulations to these artists on another successful year of Needham’s Art in Bloom.
