Glass artist Chihuly brings ‘greatest’ exhibition to Missouri Botanical Garden

Chihuly and his crew created 18 installations that add even more dramatic color to the garden’s 79 acres. The exhibition was held in It will be larger than the previous Chihuly exhibition at the Garden in 2006, which was mostly in the Climatron.

“It’s hard to put into words the wow factor,” said Garden President Peter Weiss Jackson. But I can assure people that they will not be disappointed by coming to the garden and seeing many pieces on display that they have never seen before.

The exhibition “Chihuly in the Garden 2023” opens on May 2nd and runs until October 15th.

Tickets for Nights of Chihuly go on sale March 1 to Garden members and March 15 to the general public. Day access is included with garden admission.

Chihuly’s studio craftsmen and planners visited the garden three times to develop and finalize plans, and only a small, core garden staff knew about the exhibit until recently. Garden officials said Chihuly himself would like to visit, but no date has been set. The garden is at 4344 Shaw Boulevard.

Glass installations are spread throughout the garden, including the Linnean House, the Japanese Garden, the Conservatory and the Climatron, where a giant, 928-meter blue chandelier hangs from the top of the 2006 exhibition. An exhibit of Chihuly’s paintings will go on in the Garden’s Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum.

In the year In 2006, Chihuly’s “Glass in the Garden” exhibition created a sensation and changed the future of garden events. Gift shop, rental, ticket and restaurant revenue grew by 30 percent. The garden extended the exhibit for two months until the end of that year, as well as heating a reflecting pool so crowds could see the floating “Walla Wallas” glass in icy weather.

The exhibition attracted thousands of new members and broke attendance records, breaking the 1 million visitor mark that year. The garden has since reached the 1 million mark, but the pandemic has reduced those numbers.

Garden officials hope Chihuly will help attract new visitors and those who haven’t been to the garden in a while.

In the year In 2006, “Chihuly Nights” was the genesis of future crowd favorites such as the Holiday Garden Fly and Chinese Lantern Exhibits. The staff learned how to handle the nightly crowds, and learned that the public loved the glittering garden.

In the year In 2006, visitors from all 50 states came to see the “Glass in Paradise”. Safety officers scored the license plate heights in the parking lot. Garden officials hope the new exhibit will lure tourists back, not only to spend money in the garden, but elsewhere in St. Louis.

The garden’s Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center opened in August, and the nearby Bayer Event Center is slated to open in May. In the coming months, more than 30,000 plants, flowers and trees will be planted in new garden beds.

“This really caps off what’s going to be an amazing year to grow a new crop and build on what we’ve got here,” Wyse Jackson said.

It is also a celebration of what he thought was the end of the epidemic. “It’s a way of giving back to the community, saying we’re here, come back and enjoy the garden.”

The garden will not host the summer exhibition in 2022 due to construction. Garden officials have been in touch with Chihuly’s studio for years, and have finalized plans for this exhibit in 2019.

Garden officials won’t say how much it will cost — “a lot,” said public relations consultant Peggy Lintz — and the money is budgeted with the help of sponsors. Lelia and David Farr are presenting sponsors and other lead sponsors include Edward Jones and Schnuck Markets Inc. with Scott Schnuck.

In the year Since the exhibition in 2006, donors have purchased several Chihuly works for the garden’s permanent collection: among them the floating red onion, the blue chandelier that will be moved to the climatron in the new visitor center in 2021, and the yellow squiggles that reach the top of the rose garden.

While there is no budget or plan to purchase new pieces, officials are open to any donor interested in purchasing one or more.

In the year While the 2006 exhibition changed the landscape of the garden, it blazed a new trail for Chihuly. It was one of the first exhibits in the botanical garden; Since then he has held exhibitions in a dozen or so gardens.

“The Missouri Botanical Garden is a special place for Chihuly’s studio,” said garden spokeswoman Catherine Martin. “It was so successful that it gave them a roadmap for future shows.”

Wyse Jackson He was working in Dublin in 2006, so he didn’t see the exhibition here but he has seen Chihuly shows in other gardens and knows they are among the most famous. “It’s brought new audiences to a lot of botanical gardens,” he said.

In the year In 2006, Chihuly told the Post-Dispatch that he was excited to put his work inside the Climatron, another structure made of glass.

“The Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the great historic gardens in the world, and it’s an honor to do a project there,” he said.