Bidding Begins Monday, August 31

Enhance your home garden with a beautiful dogwood blossom art piece from the UT Gardens. The UT Gardens, Knoxville, will hold an on-line auction of approximately 40 dogwood sculptures created by local artists as part of the 2020 Art in the Gardens project. Dazzling Dogwoods: A Garden Art Exhibit has been on display in the Gardens since early summer. On-line bidding is scheduled to begin Monday, August 31, and will close September 10. Members of the Gardens will have an opportunity to bid early from August 28-31. All pieces are currently on display in the UT Gardens, Knoxville, during daylight hours with exhibit guides available at the entrance kiosk. The pieces may also be viewed on-line at utgardens.tennessee.edu.

Local amateur and professional artists donated their time and talent to artistically interpret this year’s theme with a fun and creative design.  Each artist was provided with their choice of a 3-square foot or 18-square inch marine-grade plywood dogwood flower silhouette to embellish using media of their choice. Works were mounted and installed throughout the Gardens for visitors to enjoy. The weather-resistant dogwood sculptures will now be sold during an online auction with all proceeds benefiting the UT Gardens, Knoxville. The project was designed to promote community participation and foster artist collaboration as well as raise awareness and support for the Gardens.

Instructions for participating in the auction will be posted at utgardens.tennessee.edu with a link to the auction site. Winning bidders will complete their purchase by scheduling a pick-up time on Saturday, September 12. Payment in full will be due at the time of pickup. Gardens members will have the opportunity to schedule an early pickup on Friday evening, September 11. Sponsors for the exhibit were Jerry’s Artarama, UT Biosystems Engineering Machining and Fabrication Shop, Lange Customs Woodworking, Edward Dudrick, Susan and Andrew Mehringer, and Sunsphere Media.

For more information contact James Newburn @ 865-974-7256 or jnewburn@utk.edu.