Botanical Art Worldwide 2025

Once again, botanical artists around the world will join together to curate simultaneous exhibitions of botanical art to raise awareness of the rejuvenation of this artform and bring attention to plants and their importance to humanity. Special events will also be held to celebrate the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art on May 18, 2025.

Introduction

The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project will focus on and celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years. The theme is designed to draw attention to the vast variety of food and useful plants available, in contrast with the relatively few varieties currently used in mass cultivation. Plants eligible for inclusion are those cultivated for food, textiles, building, energy, and medicine.

Currently, many heritage species and varieties are only cultivated in small quantities by specialist growers on a limited scale. It is vital to promote this genetic diversity in a world challenged by a growing population, changing climate, and habitat losses.

Eligible Subjects

Possible subjects include heritage plant cultivars developed by traditional means (selection, hybridization, and propagation) and their wild relatives, as well as ancient heritage crops being brought back into cultivation.

HERITAGE CROPS: Crops that are not used in modern, large scale monocultural agriculture. Crops chosen should have been in cultivation for a minimum of 50 years.

CROP WILD RELATIVES: Wild species that can be hybridized with cultivated crops to impart a new characteristic to the cultivated crop, or that are foraged wild plants.

ANCIENT CROPS: Those that have been cultivated for hundreds or thousands of years in the same form.

 If your country’s botanical art organization is interested in participating, go to the contact tab to inquire via email.

Botanical Art Worldwide Overview & Policies

Botanical Art Worldwide (2018)

Botanical Art Worldwide (2018)

The first Botanical Art Worldwide project, launched in 2018, presented a groundbreaking collaboration between botanical artists, organizations, and institutions worldwide, creating and exhibiting botanical artworks of native plants found in each of 25 participating countries.

Botanical art is undergoing a worldwide renaissance, a movement that includes thousands of artists active in every corner of the globe. For this first project, artists worked to document wild plants where they live to create a record of today’s botanical diversity. These artworks were submitted for juried exhibitions in each participating country, on view in 2018.

This worldwide exhibition and its events brought together institutions, organizations, artists, and the public to call attention to the importance of conserving our botanical diversity. Twenty-five countries participated, representing artists and plants of six continents. Each country boasts unique habitats and plants that are common, rare, or threatened.

Participating countries presented digital slide shows of up to forty works, compiled with all other countries’ images and shown at each venue during the run of each exhibition. Opening events, lectures, demonstrations, webinars, workshops and other events were held and some shared online, so visitors can learn more about contemporary botanical art and the earth’s floristic regions and botanical wealth.

First Worldwide Day of Botanical Art, May 18, 2018

This date was celebrated throughout the world with events and programs relating to botanical art. It continues to be celebrated each year on May 18.