Publications & Sites 
Art, antiques for outdoors at Botanic Garden
An indoor garden created by Bill Heffernan illustrates the garden theme this year, "Around the Garden Table." | Photo by Robin Carlson, Chicago Botanic Garden
Antiques &
Garden Fair
Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, April 20-22; benefit preview evening from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, April 19
$15 per day in advance or $17 if purchased at the fair ($12 in advance or $14 at the fair for Garden members), or $20 for a three-day pass (members and non-members). Children under age 16 are free with an adult. Lecture tickets and preview night admission cost extra.
Regular parking fee, $20 per car; members park free
For a full list of exhibitors and to purchase all tickets, visit www.chicagobotanic.org or call (847) 835-5440.
Article Extras
Updated: April 20, 2012 9:12AM
Longer-lasting than our passion for antiques? Our love of natural beauty. These two old flames will intertwine the weekend of April 20-22, when the Chicago Botanic Garden hosts its Antiques & Garden Fair — a marriage of the Garden’s spring blooms and a rich array of classical and contemporary garden furnishings, botanical art and home and garden design
Held indoors and regardless of the weather, the fair will feature more than 120 exhibitors of treasures in every price range.
“The gardens are great this time of year. Visitors to the fair will be inspired by what they see to try new things at home,” said Jody Zombolo, Chicago Botanic Garden Director of Visitor Programs, who explained that exhibitors’ displays are required to be usable in a garden, reflect a garden or be botanically informed.
Fine displays
“I love seeing the unique items and how people display them,” she said. “It’s fun to see how they all come together and transform the space into something so incredibly beautiful.”
Celebrating its 12th year, the fair originated with a vision held by women on the Garden’s Board of Directors who had experienced similar events on the East Coast, Zombolo said.
“The big thing there is repurposing a piece to use in a garden or a sunroom. That’s the connection of the antiques to the Garden. We don’t just want pretty things,” she said.
This year’s fair is expected to draw more than 8,000 visitors who, in addition to perusing antiques and other objects, will be able to enjoy five display gardens installed indoors by local landscape companies and designers interpreting the 2012 theme, “Around the Garden Table.”
There will also be two special lectures by world-renown speakers: interior designer David Easton, recently honored by a Lifetime Achievement award at London’s Design & Decoration Awards, and David Howard, former head gardener at Highgrove for H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. Events will be capped by flower-arranging demonstrations.
Unique setting
“It’s a beautiful show because of the magical setting of the garden,” said Anne Loucks, of Anne Loucks Gallery in Glencoe, who will have botanically focused photographs and floral paintings on display. “To be part of a show in such an inspiring location is wonderful for both the visitors and the dealers. I also love being in this show because it supports the Garden, which is such a beautiful place.”
Another dealer, Mindy Baschnagel, one of two dealers participating in the show from The Find antiques in Chicago and Highwood, also describes the pleasure of simply being there — as a visitor as well as an exhibitor.
“I haven’t been in the business all that long, about 10 years. Before I was in the business, the Chicago Botanic Garden show was the top of the top,” she said. “It was such a great, fun show. It still is. I tell people even if they buy nothing, it’s fun just to look around. It’s such an experience to see what’s there.”
The Find will display an eclectic mix of unusual, vintage-style items that can be used outside, Baschnagel said, such as a big planters made of pottery and even a giant tree stump, chairs and tables. It will also have floral paintings.
