by Audrey Anderson
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Beth Shalom Garden Club and Needham High School’s art department collaborated for the 16th year to present Needham’s Art in Bloom on March 9 and 10 at the Needham Free Public Library (NFPL). This highly anticipated annual spring event showcased Needham students’ artwork paired with floral design interpretations by members of the Beth Shalom Garden Club and participants from the Kalmia and Needham Garden Clubs. The 2024 co-chairs, Linda Weisberg and Christine Sampson, also included popular lighthearted and informative floral arranging demonstrations and a silent auction of selected floral pieces to enhance the event.
The students’ artwork this year trended toward abstract pieces with bold lines, shapes, and colors, giving floral designers a challenge to interpret the artwork with colors, shapes, containers and other ornaments.
Fawn Hurwitz gave a fun and informative floral design presentation on March 10. She first showed the student’s artwork that she would base her floral design on, a black, orange, gray, and turquoise painting that featured spirals, a futuristic character, and the word “WAVES.”
Hurwitz then explained why she chose the container for the arrangement, a cylindrical wire tube. Hurwitz explained that floral designers are moving away from using Oasis in designing arrangements, because of its plastic content and other harmful substances in it. She chose the wire grid so she could attach small test tubes holding water for the flower stems to be placed in.
Hurwitz then introduced each of the flowers and green filler elements she was using as she created the arrangement on a rotating platform. She chose flower colors and shaped elements that echoed those in the painting. She varied the heights of the flowers and explained that standard design rules, such as using 3 or 5 of each element, are useful, but can be broken to achieve a look that seems right and well-balanced.
The silent auction in the Community Room was well-attended. Each floral piece to be auctioned was placed next to its inspiration artwork. Participants made bids on a sheet of paper next to each floral design.
Upstairs, fifty pairs of vibrant and impactful artwork and floral designs were presented on top of the bookshelves. Lines of attendees walked past the exhibits, commenting on how well the floral arrangements interpreted the designs and saying how impressed they were by the student artists’ depth of talent and originality.
