Announcement 

 

Clusius Lectures 2011: Gardens that shape Society

The theme of the forthcoming Clusius Lectures on March 30, 2011, is “Gardens that shape Society”. In 2010 the theme was “The Literary Garden”, in the preceding year “From Garbage to Garden”. The Clusius Lectures are aimed at broad audiences and to inform them on national and international developments in the world of gardens.

“Gardens that shape Society” will focus on the great impact of parks and gardens in past and present as ideal places for the public to come in contact with nature. City Parks and Botanical Gardens alike display botanical diversity of the plant world. Especially botanical gardens with their outspoken educational and scientific roles are thus showcases of the latest developments. Thus the Clusius Lectures 2011 will interrogate the history and future of our confrontation with nature in its natural and artificial forms of display in gardens.

The preliminary programme is as follows:

14.00. Introduction

14.05. Dr. Nicolas Robin, Freiburg
Towards a cultural history of botanical gardens and public parks

14.20. Dr. Dawn Sanders, London
From Luca Ghini to Lilian Clarke: Educational Voices in Botanic Gardens

14.55. Ir. Michiel den Ruijter, Dieren
Parks as exhibitions

15.30. Tea Break

16.00. Dr. Robin Lane Fox, Oxford
Gardens that shaped society in history

 

The symposium will be chaired by Dr. Pieter Baas, former Director of the National Herbarium of the Netherlands.

The Clusius Lectures will take place in the Kamerlingh Onnes Building, Leiden, on 30 March 2011.

Admission is free. Donations are welcomed.

Brief notes on the speakers:

Pieter Baas (1944) is the former director of the National Herbarium of the Netherlands. He is professor emeritus of systematic botany at Leiden University and Chairman of the Foundation for the Netherlands Plant Collections (SNP) in Dutch botanical gardens. He is also a member of the Board of the Clusius Foundation.

 

Robin Lane Fox is a world-famous historian. He taught Classical History in Oxford and wrote authoritative books on Alexander the Great, the early Christians and Constanin the Great. More recently his widely acclaimed books: The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian (Allen Lane, 2005) and Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer (Allen Lane, 2008) were published. From 1970 onwards he contributes a weekly ‘gardening column’ in the Financial Times. He also published two classics of gardening literature: Better Gardening (1982) and Variations on a Garden (1974, 1986) He is curator of the Gardens of New College, Oxford.

Dr. Nicolas Robin is Visiting Research Professor in Garden History at Leiden Universitity on behalf of the Clusius Foundation. Robin (Rennes, 1977) studies the role of the famous Leiden Hortus Botanicus in the 17th and en 18the century in the development of the plant sciences in general and of experimental plant science in particular. He is attached to the Scaliger Institute to study source materials in the Leiden University Library, in the National Herbarium branch of the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity, and in the Leiden Hortus. He also teaches Garden History in the Faculty of Humanities. Dr. Robin combines his Leiden post with a position at the University of Education in Freiburg, Germany.

Ir. Michiel den Ruiter does scientific research at the Technical University of Delft (Landscape Architecture). The European World Exhibitions from 1851 till 2001 are the subject of his current research into their spatial organization, including parks and gardens. In all cities where these 27 world exhibitions took place, parks and gardens and green spaces have remained as a result. These present an interesting picture of developments of the last 150 years.

Den Ruijter has worked at Heidemij (now Arcadis) and for the municipality of  Zoetermeer. For this “new town” he was the principal designer of the Floriade 1992. He has lectured at Wageningen University and at Larenstein College.

Dawn Sanders is an experienced botanical educator and researcher based in London, UK. She has held education positions at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Chelsea Physic Garden and the Natural History Museum, London. Her specialties include the designing of botanical educational programmes working in partnership with schools, parks, gardens and community groups. She also researches the history of natural history, and currently studies the work of Mary Treat, correspondent of Darwin. She is a distinguished consultant at the "Gardens for Learning" programme.

Since Luca Ghini the educational role of botanic gardens has been a vital part of their historical narrative. Her lecture will explore educational voices in botanic garden history in the context of 21^st century gardens and their role in modern society.