Cylburn: An Urban Oasis + An Art Show and Sale

First, let’s get the pronunciation straight: Cylburn is said like sill-burn. It might be of Welsh origin, as the Welsh for Wales is Cymru (kum-ri).

As children, Cylburn was the largest and closest urban garden and nature center to where we lived, and we frequently attended events there, and spent time exploring its nature trails and naturalist museum as scouts. One of my most enduring memories was a beehive fitted into a window, so you could see the bees coming and going, and making their honey. We also attended their annual Market Day where cuttings from exotic plants from the gardens were sold to blossoming horticulturalists. It wasn’t until a wedding at Cylburn earlier this summer that I had a chance to visit again, after an absence of 20+ years, and it brought back loads of memories! Now, it’s popping up on my radar screen all of the time – and considering it’s less than two miles, and even less as the crow flies, from my house, it’s going to have a permanent place on the radar screen.

Beginning this coming weekend, there will be an art show and sale titled “A Celebration of Art at Cylburn”. Almost any time you visit Cylburn’s 207-acre grounds, you will spot some type of artist doing their thing, either painting, sketching or taking photographs.  More than 100 works will be for sale, and all of the proceeds will benefit the Cylburn Arboretum Association, the supporting foundation of Cylburn.The artworks are all very reasonably priced, most less than $1000 for an original piece of art. On Saturday morning, there is an opening breakfast for patron previews, which includes a traditional Maryland Breakfast, and a Gallery Reception on Saturday evening – that’s Saturday, November 3, 2012! On Sunday, November 4, Leopoldine Prosperetti, author and art history professor at Towson University will present a free lecture entitled “Trees in Art: The Artistic Imagination and Arboreal Subjects in Western Painting” at 2:00 p.m.For more information about Cylburn, the art show or the lecture, please click here.

P.S. If you can’t make it to either of the Saturday events, The Old Line Society’s having an Art Bash on Nov. 7th, to help raise funds for an artist-in-residence program at Cylburn. Here.