50 years of art-inspired floral installations at the MFA

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At 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, floral designers and volunteers from 50 garden clubs and community organizations arrived at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, holding containers and wagons filled with fresh flowers.

“Going down there and watching the people come in, it's palpable, it’s so exciting,” said Nancy Brigham Cyr, a member of the Garden Club of the Back Bay and a volunteer at the MFA.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of “Art in Bloom” at the MFA, an annual tradition of pairing floral arrangements with art in the museum’s collection. In honor of the anniversary, floral design participants were assigned to one of 50 objects across the museum’s collection.

One of these objects — “Helen Sears,” a John Singer Sargent painting in the Shapiro Gallery — was featured in the first “Art in Bloom” event in 1976. A description of the painting from the MFA describes 6-year-old Sears’ “wistful mood as she stares solemnly into the distance.”

“That’s what I’m trying to get,” said Seta Lepore of Belmont Garden Club, who is designing a floral interpretation of the 1895 artwork with assistant Sarah Caputo. “I’m saying it in flowers, and it’s not easy.”

“Art in Bloom” was conceived of by Chuck Thomas, who joined the museum in 1976 as the deputy director of resource development and later became the director of membership. He hoped that the event could boost attendance in early spring.

During the inaugural “Art in Bloom,” 18 floral arrangements — 12 from the museum’s Ladies’ Committee and six from local garden clubs — drew 4,300 visitors to the museum. Since then, the floral showcase has become the museum’s largest public event, attracting 29,000 visitors in 2025.

Inspired by the popularity of MFA Boston’s “Art in Bloom,” more than 40 institutions across the United States and Canada have created their own versions of the event, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Saint Louis Art Museum and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

In Massachusetts, the Fitchburg Art Museum recently hosted its 28th annual “Art in Bloom,” and the Worcester Art Museum hosted its 22nd annual “Flora in Winter.”

“ I think it's a rite of spring. I think it's something unique and it's not something that you typically see, so it's kind of fun to come to the museum,” said Linda Chernoff, the director of special events at the MFA. “Trying to find every single object becomes a goal for many, many people.”

Chernoff has organized “Art in Bloom” for the past 25 years with the museum staff and over a hundred volunteers.

“ Every year, we try to incorporate something new that people haven't seen, but also try to really stay true to the tradition,” she said. This year, Chernoff and her team made sure to highlight masterpieces in the museum’s collection that hadn’t been featured in the past five years.

In December, Chernoff and her team reached out to garden clubs and designers, casting a “wide net” to include groups that participated in past years and also invited new ones. Applications were accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. In February, each designer was assigned an object in the collection. And there are rules that must be followed, including no water and each arrangement has its own size restriction.

“Cocktails,” a painting by Harlem Renaissance painter Archibald Motley, was assigned to the Garden Club of the Back Bay, in honor of late art collector and Back Bay resident John Axelrod, who was killed in a hit-and-run in January. The colorful painting, part of the museum’s John Axelrod Collection, depicts five women adorning hats and high heels, sipping cocktails while a butler in a suit serves them a meal.

Garden Club of the Back Bay members Jody Weisman and Tom Sopko conducted research on Motley to understand his vision of representing the multiplicity of Black Americans, challenging stereotypical depictions.

“ The picture's very sensual. The colors are beautiful, tones of a lot of purples, and obviously it's Art Deco. So you want to have a little flair and sophistication to the design,” said Weisman. In preparation for their arrangement, Weisman and Sopko traveled to the New England Flower Exchange in Chelsea on Tuesday at 6 a.m. to select a fresh batch of calla lilies, orchids, roses, and fragrant stock, primarily in lavenders and pinks.

Vinfen’s Gateway Arts, a Brookline-based organization dedicated to supporting and representing adult artists with disabilities, will participate in MFA Bloom for the first time. “ We do a lot of visual media, but we've never done floral design or gardening,” said Aurore Dinwoodie, community engagement coordinator. “So it's piquing a new interest here.”

Gateway Arts artists Betty Antoine and Amy Caliri, who have backgrounds in painting and fiber arts, collaborated with MFA volunteers Laura Rossinow and Lori Walsh to create a design based on “Happy Buddha,” a bright paper print by Kang Ik-Joong in the Asian Paintings Gallery that spoke to the artists’ affinity for vibrant colors.

Alongside “Art in Bloom,” the spring-inspired exhibition “Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination” runs through June 28. The exhibition brings together nearly 120 contemporary and never-before-seen objects in the museum’s collection that depict gardens across time and cultures. “Art in Bloom,” visitors can also purchase tickets for floral design workshops with designers Kim Lamothe and Cailla Quinn.

For volunteer Cyr, who attended one of the earliest iterations of "Art in Bloom," she appreciates how the event has grown and the efforts to include the community.

“Someone who might be intimidated by looking at a painting or looking at a sculpture doesn’t feel the same level or kind of intimidation when they’re looking at flowers,” said Cyr, who now brings her grandchildren to the museum. “I really feel that flowers are a universal language.”

“Art in Bloom” runs from Friday, May 1, to Sunday, May 3. The event is included with a general admission ticket. On Sunday, school-aged children in Boston and up to two guests enjoy free admission through “Art in Bloom” Family Day, which is part of the City of Boston’s Family Days program.