Garden & Gun to Present “Birdwatching,” a New Avian-inspired Art and Conservation Exhibition

From February 11th to April 3rd, Garden & Gun will present “Birdwatching,” a new avian-inspired art and conservation exhibition.

Drawing from nature, the splendors of bird-watching, and the interconnectivity between humans and the natural world, this immersive experience takes viewers on a journey between the Joseph Manigault House, The Dewberry hotel, and the Garden & Gun offices at the Cigar Factory, sparking wonder and awareness of avian conservation. Curated and artistically directed by Kelly S. Turner, each individual birdscape is inspired by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artist-naturalists and features the work of artists Brandon Ballengée, Clare Celeste Börsch, and J. Drew Lanham.

You can learn more at gardenandgun.com/event/birdwatching.

Here’s a look at the schedule:

Joseph Manigault House, 350 Meeting Street

Staged throughout the historic home, this immersive installation offers encounters with rare and endangered bird specimens as they soar through doorways, perch on mantles, and flutter in unexpected places. In each room, whimsical scenes showcase artifacts and objects from the Charleston Museum’s vast collections alongside various contemporary works, together contextualizing Southeastern birds and bringing Lowcountry histories to life.

Hours: Monday-Saturday | 10AM-5PM, Sunday | 12-5PM

Purchase tour tickets HERE 

The Living Room at the Dewberry Hotel, 334 Meeting Street

Sidle up to the Living Room’s inviting bar or nestle into a chic banquette to savor three exclusively crafted cocktails, each with special details and accompaniments inspired by Southeastern birds. A site of the Garden & Gun Birdwatching exhibition, the Living Room hosts a one-of-a-kind topiary installation depicting the great North American wood stork. A treasured bird of the Southeast, the wood stork is a once-endangered species now on the cusp of reemergence thanks to recent environmental stewardship efforts.

Hours

Monday-Thursday | 7AM-12PM, 3-11PM

Friday & Saturday | 7AM-2PM, 3PM-2AM

Sunday | 7AM-2PM, 3-11PM

Reservations encouraged 

Garden & Gun, 701 East Bay Street, Suite 115

Visit the first-floor gallery of the magazine’s Cigar Factory offices to view works by the exhibition’s featured artists, together drawing attention to avian histories long-vanished. By Clare Celeste Börsch, a collection of Earth Deity suits are on display, as well as an immersive chandelier installation titled Making the Invisible Visible. In addition, Brandon Ballengée’s Frameworks of Absence prints will be shown alongside his commissioned Birdwatching creation, RIP Carolina Parakeet: After John James Audubon. Each evening, keep your eyes peeled for striking images of extinct and endangered birds by Clare Celeste Börsch projected on the smokestack outside the building, accompanied by a powerful soundscape by J. Drew Lanham.

Hours

Indoor Gallery Viewing

Monday-Saturday | 9AM-5PM

Sunday | 12-5PM

Outdoor Projection Viewing

Monday-Sunday | 6PM – midnight

Additional programming connected to Birdwatching:

SEWE | Cocktails and Conservation 

Saturday, February 19th

As part of SEWE weekend, G&G hosts a conversation with J. Drew Lanham at G&G’s Cigar Factory offices.

CJ Lotz G&G senior editor and Kelly S. Turner curator and artistic director of G&G’s exhibition Birdwatching, sit down with South Carolina author, poet, and ornithologist J. Drew Lanham to discuss his approach to birding, its connections to history and race, as well as his role in the exhibition, which incorporates written and recorded portions of his original poetry.

Learn more at gardenandgun.com/event/sewe-cocktails-and-conservation-2022. Tickets can be purchased here.

Hours

2PM – 4PM

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