Intrigued by the intersection of nature and art? Then you are standing in front of Sturt Haaga Gallery. It invites you to contemplate this connection.
Sturt Haaga Gallery is located within Descanso Gardens. Admission to the gallery is free with gardens admission. Remember the gallery is only open during exhibitions. The gallery’s raison d’être is to encourage contemplation. It wants you to think about the intersection between contemporary art and garden science.
Each exhibition transforms the gallery space. It uses an array of art styles and mediums. Facets of garden science are included. Explore botany. Discover horticulture, biology, ecology, and conservation. Take a deep dive into environmental and cultural history. Learn about the land, its flora, and fauna. See it all through the lens of contemporary art.
Most Sturt Haaga exhibitions are group shows. These shows feature works based on a single theme. A curatorial advisory committee proposes the themes. The committee is made up of garden staff, trustees, and art experts. They come from Descanso’s surrounding community.
At Descanso, nature is a classroom. The Sturt Haaga Gallery extends that classroom. It offers art viewing and art making. Gallery exhibitions typically include artistic activities. These are theme-based, educational, or enrichment activities for children.
Exhibitions and installations are designed to intrigue. They delight and often invite visitor participation. Past exhibitions included rooms filled with bells and feather boas. Other exhibits featured stunning life-sized sculptures of native fauna. Breathtaking photography showed intricate details of local wildlife. Mixed media explorations looked at the parasitological ecosystem of the forest floor. Participatory plant foraging involved an ecological systems engineer.
Two lush vertical gardens enliven the facade of the Sturt Haaga Gallery. They showcase a mélange of plants, horticulture, and architectural design. This reinforces the gallery’s mission. It inspires new perspectives about the surrounding gardens.
For an enchanting view, venture up the hillside steps next to the Sturt Haaga Gallery. Hope’s Garden will reward you. You will see a choice Descanso view. This includes the gallery’s rooftop native plant garden. You can see the energy-saving green roof of the building below.
The space now occupied by the Sturt Haaga Gallery had humble beginnings. It started as a car garage near the entrance to the Boddy House. The Boddy garage was restored for the gallery. A newly constructed building was nestled into the hillside. It provides ample art display space. This includes three exhibition areas and the green roof garden.
Frederick Fisher & Partners Architects of Los Angeles designed the gallery. Like much of Descanso, the design combines the historic and the contemporary. Materials, finishes, technologies, and construction processes reflect high standards. The standards are for sustainable design and operation.
Funding for the Sturt Haaga Gallery came from private community sources. A lead gift came from Heather Sturt Haaga and Paul G. Haaga Jr. of La Cañada Flintridge. Additional funding was provided by The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation of Los Angeles. Georgianna and Paul Erskine of Pasadena also contributed. Many additional individual and foundation supporters helped too.
Significant funding for programming in the Sturt Haaga Gallery has been provided by Richard Carlson and Erin Maclean Culley of Los Angeles, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Mindy and Gene Stein of La Cañada Flintridge, Heather and Paul Haaga, and the Pasadena Art Alliance.
Since the Sturt Haaga Gallery opened in September 2011 its curatorial direction has focused on group shows. It has featured artwork that speaks broadly to plants, botany, and nature. It has also addressed ecologies, living communities, plant processes and uses, and landscape. Human relationships and interactions with nature are also represented. The aim is to connect Descanso Gardens with the art presented. It offers visitors new ways to view the natural world.
So, as you leave the Sturt Haaga Gallery, consider how art enriches our understanding of nature. Remember that the beauty of Descanso Gardens extends beyond its landscapes. It thrives within these gallery walls.