Frabel glass art studio

Frabel’s botanical exhibition “Life in the Gardens - Frabel at Phipps”, opened on May 20, 2009. This is the largest exhibition at Botanical Gardens Frabel has ever done and every time the exhibition becomes a bit bigger. Two 53ft tractor trailers were needed to transport all the glass to this beautiful botanical garden and it took a group of 15 people 7 long days to get everything installed.

There are 2 new installations at this exhibition. The first one is the “Longfellow Gravity” installation, that consists of 3 large cubes that seem to tumble down a hill into a pond, surrounded by 14 Longfellows in different sizes that look and see this all happen, but are able to play during all of this. It is about seeing fun and enjoyment, even when things around you are not as easy as they once may have been. The second installation that was new is the “Tower”, a large version of a sculpture Frabel created somewhere in the late 1970’s titled: “Tower of Babel”.

Phipps is one of oldest and largest Conservatories in the United States. The building as well as all the plants and flowers inside are just breathtaking and deserve a visit. Besides all the wonderful nature, Phipps has introduced lots of technology that reduces their footprint on our environment. Phipps is using special glass that keeps the heat inside in winter and stays cools in summer. There are special shields to keep the heat out in summer, a Fuel-Cell system created by Siemens that creates Hydrogen out of Natural gas and then converts that into energy at an efficiency of 80%(!) and the cups and cutlery used in their cafeteria are 100% biodegradable and made from plants only (corn for a clear plastic looking cup and potatoes, believe it or not, for the cutlery).

Check out their website for opening hours and other information: http://phipps.conservatory.org