The Rare Event
Fairchild Botanical Gardens
Miami, FL
18 de Octubre
The Rare Event, co-chaired by Sheldon Anderson, David Santana and Axel Stein, is an annual auction of rare plants and contemporary art, that raises money for Fairchild's international conservation work. This year the event has commissioned 24 paintings from a number of internationally recognized artists. Each artist has been asked to temporarily "adopt" an endangered Madagascar plant species and produce a unique work of art based on that species.
This year, we will celebrate the biodiversity and culture of Madagascar. This island continent is a distant and exotic world for most residents of Miami, yet we all live and work in the shade of that country. The most colorful and abundant shade tree in Miami is the Royal Poinciana, Delonix regia, a tree from the forests of Madagascar. This beautiful tree was thought extinct for centuries until it was rediscovered surviving in the remote valleys of Madagascar.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is working with scientists and conservationists in Madagascar to save the unique biological heritage of the island continent. Madagascar is a recognized biodiversity hotspot that contains unique species and habitats found nowhere else on the planet. These unique species are now threatened by habitat loss and illegal wildlife trade. Fairchild is working to save the unique plants and forests of Madagascar from extinction and has partnered with two Madagascan groups, the Man and the Environment (MATE) and the Aboretum D'Antsokay.
In February 2008, the Indian Ocean coast of Madagascar was hit by a powerful hurricane. The Vohibola field station a collaborative Fairchild-MATE installation was destroyed along with the Vohibola village, home to the villagers, the guardians of the forest. We will use the Rare Event to raise funds to restart conservation activities and help the village rebuild.
The Rare Event Art exhibition is inviting contemporary artists to explore their visions of the lost world of Madagascar and its linkages to the rice fields of the Mississippi and the streets of Miami. This art will be exhibited for two months in The Gallery at Fairchild with a subsequent touring exhibition going to the Jardin Botanique et Zoologique in Antananarivo, and to the Arboretum D'Antsokay in South Madagascar. Part of the exhibition will include a photo essay with images of Madagascan plants and their "curators" – the gardeners and homeowners of Miami and from the collections at Fairchild. Throughout the year, this art work will also be a focal point for the International Chocolate and Orchid Festivals at Fairchild and various plant society shows where plants from Madagascar are valued by local gardeners and hobbyists.
This year, The Rare Event will help one of the world's botanical treasures and support the villagers of Vohibola who are the custodians of this treasure.
The Rare Event 2008 Artists
Dominique Charrie, Elena Climent, Nancy Friedemann, Karenina Fabrizzi, Lynn Gelfman, Alexis Gorodine, Juan Iribarren, Craig Kucia , Carlos Luna, Nela Ochoa, Michele Oka Doner, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Lydia Rubio, Gina Ruggeri, Raymond Saa, Allison Stewart, Sebastian Spreng, Jorge Tacla, Patricia Van Dalen, Federico Vegas, Soledad Salame, Ruben Torres Llorca, Daniela Wicky and Su-en Wong.
