Miltonidium Patricia McCully “Pacific Matriarch” (Bryan Ramsay/Smithsonian Gardens)
This tour is also available on:
Orchids, exotic and alluring, seem to stop us in our tracks, assaulting our senses with color and scent. Those encounters provide the theme, Moment, for the Smithsonian’s 2017 Orchid Exhibit, the first to use the Hirshhorn Museum as its location. For this .collaborative effort among Smithsonian Gardens, Smithsonian Exhibits, and the U.S. Botanic Garden, Hirshhorn exhibit designers have created imaginative structures to showcase the blooms on display.
Join two Smithsonian Gardens staff members, Tom Mirenda, orchid collection specialist, and Melanie Pyle, orchid exhibit designer, as they lead a private tour of Moment before the museum opens to the public. They talk about their work with orchids and complexities of designing an exhibit with living collections.
Tour meets at 8:30 a.m. in the lobby of Hirshhorn (Smithsonian Metro, Blue/Orange lines or L’Enfant Plaza, Yellow/Green lines) and photo ID is required; due to the logistics of entering the museum, latecomers will not be admitted.