About Botanical Art Worldwide

Linking people with plants through botanical art

Botanical Art Worldwide 2025

Goals

Artists around the world are working on this project to:

• build partnerships between artists, institutions, scientists, and the public.

• raise awareness of the worldwide renaissance in botanical art.

• acknowledge and build upon the increasing ease of communication and connection between botanical artists wherever they might live and work.

• increase appreciation and understanding of crop diversity around the world.

• engage in a project to document some of the world’s diverse crop plants.

Project Components

• Exhibitions of original botanical artworks juried from submissions of artists in each participating country.

• All will depict crop plants grown in each country to focus on worldwide crop diversity.

• Digital presentations will be shown featuring artworks appearing in all other countries’ exhibitions.

• Each country will set its own opening and closing dates.

• Lectures, webinars, workshops, demonstrations, and other public programming will be presented by organizers and host venues during the exhibitions’ opening times.

• Exhibition venues around the world will all hold special events on May 18, 2025 - a Worldwide Day of Botanical Art following the sun from venue to venue.

Participating Countries

Currently the following countries plan to participate in Botanical Art Worldwide 2025. If your botanical art organization, botanical garden or museum is interested in organizing participation in another country, please send an email to worldwide@asba-art.org for more information.

• Australia

• Austria/Germany

• Belgium

• Brazil

• Canada

• Chile

• China

• Colombia

• France

• India

• Indonesia

• Ireland

• Italy

• Japan

• Mexico

• Netherlands

• New Zealand

• Philippines

• Republic of Korea

• Russia

• Scotland

• Singapore

• South Africa

• Taiwan

• Thailand

• Turkey

• Ukraine

• United Kingdom (excluding Scotland)

• United States

Botanical Art Worldwide 2025

Botanical Art Worldwide 2018

Goals

Artists around the world have been working on this project for over four years to:

• build partnerships between artists, institutions, scientists, and the public.

• raise awareness of the worldwide renaissance in botanical art.

• increase appreciation and understanding of the world’s precious plant diversity and its interconnectedness.

• acknowledge and build upon the increasing ease of communication and connection between botanical artists wherever they might live and work.

• engage in a project to document some of the world’s wild plant species.

Cirsium pitcheri is a Federally Threatened thistle of the Great Lakes in the US, and artist Derek Norman made the drawing on the left in the lakeside dunes the thistle inhabits. He then used this study to create his final pen and ink drawing on the right.

Project components

Exhibitions of original botanical artworks juried from submissions of artists in each participating country.

All will depict plants indigenous to each country to focus on worldwide plant diversity, highlighting the world’s floristic regions.

Digital presentations will be shown featuring artworks appearing in all other countries’ exhibitions.

Each country will set its own opening and closing dates.

Lectures, webinars, workshops, demonstrations, and other public programming will be presented by organizers and host venues during the exhibitions’ opening times.

Exhibition venues around the world will all hold special events on May 18, 2018 - a Worldwide Day of Botanical Art following the sun from venue to venue.

participating Countries

Twenty-five countries on six continents are represented:

Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom,  United States

Definition of “native plant”

“Any wild plant indigenous to a country, including natural hybrids, but excluding any cultivar, man-made hybrids and naturalized exotics."

Organizational structure

A steering committee guides the direction of the project’s components affecting all exhibitions, and each country’s organizers guide their project within their own country. The steering committee consists of between two and five members from each participating country.

Presenters at the First International Congress of Botanical Art, many of whom are steering committee members, held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, in October, 2016. From left, Robin A. Jess, US, Akiko Enokido, Japan, Mieko Ishikawa, Japan, Fatima Zagonel, Brazil, Esmée Winkel, Netherlands, Agathe Haevermans, France, Thomas Haevermans, France, Anita Walsmit-Sachs, Netherlands, Beverly Allen, Australia, Elaine Searle, UK, Mary Dillon, Ireland, Carol Woodin, US, and Jee-Yeon Koo, Republic of Korea.