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Abstract
This essay discusses an art program developed to engage viewers in environmental thought through unexpected experiences. Spread over 300 acres, the 15 nature-based sculptures of the South Carolina Botanical Garden (SCBG) are creative interventions developed with local natural materials to suit their separate unique sites. Since its inception in 1995, the SCBG's sculpture program has worked with artists of national and international prominence to create a world-renowned collection of nature-based site-specific sculptures. Placed in various terrains, without explanation, visitors to the garden experience the art outside of the more common context of gallery or museum space. The sculptures blur distinctions between nature and culture, as well as disrupt the presuppositions attached to public spaces, natural spaces, and artistic expression.
Notes
1. Visitor comments and reflections were collected by the authors and students participating in service-learning through a combination of anonymous surveys, participant observation, community outreach, and solicitation to the SCBG membership. Several of the visitor comments provided in this essay were collected in a participant observation project that included both authors as well as David Novak, also of Clemson University.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Dylan Wolfe
Dylan Wolfe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Clemson University
Kelly Russell
Kelly Russell is an educational consultant who worked as an undergraduate research assistant for Clemson University and is a member of the South Carolina Botanical Garden's Nature-based Sculpture Program Working Group. More information about the sculptures, as well as additional photographs and ongoing research, can be found at naturebasedart.org