Global icon and Artist in Residence at Selby Gardens, Patti Smith returns with a special performance at the Downtown Sarasota campus on November 15, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. The one-hour performance, “An Evening with Patti Smith Dedicated to Georgia O’Keeffe”, is a prelude to Selby Gardens’ upcoming Goldstein Exhibition, Yayoi Kusama: A Letter to Georgia O’Keeffe.
Advance tickets for Selby Garden Members will go on sale Thursday, October 19. The remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 20, and can be purchased at selby.org
This is Smith’s third visit to Selby Gardens – with an additional visit planned for 2024. Her visits have combined public activities such as readings and performances with private time drawing creative inspiration from the organization’s two bayfront campuses and world-renowned collections.
Patti’s revolutionary mergence of artistic mediums resonates with our organization on many levels as we continue to develop interdisciplinary programming,” Jennifer Rominiecki, president and CEO of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, said.
Smith’s blossoming relationship with Selby Gardens stems from the Gardens’ 2022 Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition, “Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith: Flowers, Poetry, and Light.” The show explored Mapplethorpe’s flower photography and Smith’s lyrics and poetry about flowers and nature, in dialogue with original horticultural installations inspired by their art.
Smith first visited Selby Gardens in February 2022 to tour “Flowers, Poetry, and Light” and perform songs and readings she selected to complement the exhibition. She called the interdisciplinary show “a beguiling exhibition” and said she “was very moved to be asked to be a part of it.”
Smith returned in April 2022 for a second live performance, at which the new residency was announced.
About Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens provides 45 acres of bayfront sanctuaries connecting people with air plants of the world, native nature, and our regional history. Established by forward-thinking women of their time, Selby Gardens comprises the 15-acre Downtown Sarasota campus and the 30-acre Historic Spanish Point campus in the Osprey area of Sarasota County, Florida.
The Downtown Sarasota campus on Sarasota Bay is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, and other tropical plants. There is a significant focus on botany, horticulture, education, historical preservation, and the environment.
The Historic Spanish Point campus is located less than 10 miles south along Little Sarasota Bay. One of the largest preserves showcasing native Florida plants that is interpreted for and open to the public, it celebrates an archaeological record that encompasses approximately 5,000 years of Florida history.
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is a Smithsonian Affiliate and is also accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
NOTE: Visitors to Sarasota from outside of Florida should be aware that the NAACP has issued a travel advisory for the state noting, and warning, that under its current governor, Ron DeSantis, Florida has “engaged in an all-out attack on Black Americans, accurate Black history, voting rights, members of the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, women’s reproductive rights, and free speech, while simultaneously embracing a culture of fear, bullying, and intimidation by public officials.”
