Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia College of Environment and Design is holding a graphic arts competition in anticipation of the 75th anniversary of the Founders Memorial Garden in 2014. Entries are due by Feb. 2 and cash prizes will be awarded for first, second and third places as well as honorable mentions.
The “Drawn from the Garden” competition is open to any UGA student registered during the 2012-2013 academic year as well as area high school students who were asked to participate through their individual schools’ art programs.
Artwork should be inspired by the Founders Memorial Garden, a 2.5-acre garden on the Lumpkin Street side of UGA’s North Campus. Artwork can include Founders Memorial Garden plants, landscape design, objects and structures. All artwork should be two dimensional and created by hand. This includes pen and ink, watercolors, collages, oil paintings and pencil drawings. Digital media and photography are not part of this competition.
“In the spirit of the traditional discipline of landscape architecture, whose foundations lie in two dimensional art from the 18th century, we wanted to dare students to try to immerse themselves ‘en plein air’ just like the first designers did,” said Marianne Cramer, an associate professor in the College of Environment and Design who has used the garden for undergraduate studios as well as for a graduate course in landscape management.
Artwork with data slips and entry forms should be delivered to the Circle Gallery, at the College of Environment and Design, 285 S. Jackson St., on either Friday, Feb. 1 or Saturday, Feb. 2 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Prizes include $100 awards for honorable mentions; a $250 third place; a $750 second place; and a $1,250 First Place Founders Award.
William Eiland, director of the Georgia Museum of Art, will serve as juror for this competition.
Artwork will be presented to the public in an exhibition, Drawn from the Garden: Student Work Celebrating the Founders Memorial Garden Diamond Jubilee, at the Circle Gallery April 1-25. Winners will be announced at a reception for the exhibition April 5 from 5-6:30 p.m. at the Circle Gallery.
The competition and exhibition are designed to kick off the celebration of 75 years and to re-affirm the garden’s use as a learning landscape and site of solace and meditation.
The Founders Memorial Garden commemorates the 12 founders of the Ladies Garden Club of Athens, which was the first garden club in America. The garden was designed by Hubert B. Owens, the late dean of UGA’s School of Landscape Architecture, and the school’s students.
The garden consists of a formal boxwood garden, two courtyards, a terrace, a perennial garden and two informal areas. The grounds are the location of the former headquarters house for the Garden Club of Georgia (1969 to 1998). The rose-brick, Greek revival style house was built in 1857, originally used for faculty housing. The house and garden are on both the state and National Register of Historic Places.
The UGA College of Environment and Design is responsible for its care and maintenance with assistance from the UGA Facilities Management Division.
For more information on the garden and contest, see www.ced.uga.edu.
College of Environment and Design
The UGA College of Environment and Design is one of the largest and oldest landscape design schools in the U.S. and is comprised of a five-year professional undergraduate degree as well as graduate programs in landscape architecture, historic preservation, environmental ethics and environmental planning and design.