Annual Report 2017 Table of Contents
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ANNUAL REPORT 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Message from the CEO ............................3 Year in Review .....................................4-8 By the Numbers ......................................9 Treasurer’s Report ..................................11 Financial Report ...............................12-13 Board of Trustees ...................................14 Message from the Board Chair................15 La Calavera Catrina exhibit La Calavera Catrina exhibit Donor List ........................................16-21 THE MISSION Volunteers ............................................23 The mission of Denver Botanic Gardens is to connect people with plants, especially plants from the Rocky Mountain region and similar regions around the world, providing delight and enlightenment to everyone. Photo Collage ..................................24-25 The four core values of the Gardens — transformation, relevance, diversity and sustainability — spell out the Gardens’ intentions in the years ahead. These core values, along with the Gardens’ brand platform, strategy, icon and capital campaign, are cohesive and serve as a map to chart our course. With the support of friends, we set out to ensure Denver Botanic Gardens will forever flourish. MESSAGE FROM THE CEO It seems as if all years, over time, develop a theme. It can be a new garden, an exhibit or a phenomenon. For Denver Botanic Gardens, 2017 was all about collections and connections. The primary purpose of our certified museum is the management of collections. We tend to seven living collections, preserved collections, art, artifacts and books. This was the year when one of our most important collections took center stage, literally. The first full season of the Steppe Garden mesmerized visitors and scholars alike. It is rare to find such a deep and interesting comparative study of plants from similar ecosystems. They are different yet related. We learned that plants from the Central Asian Steppe evolved to bloom earlier than their cousins in Patagonia, South Africa or North America. We witnessed the show-stopping color of the South African Steppe, with neon ice plants creating a sensation. And now, with a formal agreement with the government of Argentina, we will see a very rare display in the years ahead from a region that closely resembles Colorado. Like all the Gardens’ collections, the steppe collection is meticulously documented and tracked. In the decades to come, we are convinced that a global repository of knowledge about flora of these regions will prove invaluable to the understanding of many other scientific pursuits involving sustainability, resilience and adaptation. This was a year that saw over 1.3 million connections, our total visitation. Attendance at the Lavender Festival doubled this year. Pumpkin Festival grew by 50 percent, as did Blossoms of Light. When events that have thrived for decades suddenly jump, something is definitely going on. I like to think that we have seen a bit of alchemy here. A whole new audience has, just recently, connected profoundly to our cherished institution. The programming and activities are part of it. It certainly helps to have one-of-a-kind blockbusters like displaying works by Alexander Calder. But more than anything, there is something about the fusion of nature in its full glory with humanity at a crossroads that seems especially relevant and transformational. This is an institution that provides inspiration and uplift, education and delight, hope and confidence. To all who are part of this journey, thank you. Brian Vogt Denver Botanic Gardens CEO Science Pyramid 2 3 • The Global Conservation Strategy for Coffee Genetic • The Gardens, in collaboration with Denver Museum of YEAR IN REVIEW Resources was published in June 2017. This project Nature and Science and the Denver Zoo, received a two- was a collaboration with the Crop Trust and World year Carnegie Foundation grant for the STEM education Coffee Research to ensure the future sustainability program, Urban Advantage Denver, which targets Art & Interpretation of the coffee crop. You can find the strategy here: middle school students from underserved schools. During • Eight exhibitions were presented throughout the year www.croptrust.org/saving-coffee/ academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 the program will including Calder: Monumental, featuring sculpture reach 3,000 students each year. by seminal artist Alexander Calder. Four exhibitions • We continued our partnership with the National highlighted Colorado artists, including Whimsy: Agricultural Technology Institute (INTA) in Argentina. • Corporations continued to support the Gardens in Botanical Art & Illustration. Two off-site exhibitions Through funding support from Denver Botanic Gardens unique ways, such as: UMB Bank was presenting shared information about the Rocky Mountain West, and Plant Select™, INTA staff conducted plant sponsor of the Summer Concert Series and had naming including an award-winning botanical illustration exploration. Seeds collected from these expeditions of UMB Bank Amphitheater; Bank of America included exhibition at the Royal Horticultural Society in London. were received in August 2017 and germination studies the Gardens in its “Museums on Us” program; United are underway. Airlines was the official airline of the Summer Concert • The School of Botanical Art & Illustration (SBAI) served Series through cash donation and travel credits; and more than 1,100 registrants through 128 courses, • W e hosted three exchange students from University of Gates Corporation was the presenting sponsor of including a class at El Charco Botanical Garden in Rio Negro in Bariloche, Argentina. During their three Blossoms of Light. Mexico. The entry-level Pencil I class welcomed months here, they learned about propagation and 140 new students, a 141% increase over 2016. production techniques and each student worked on • The Gardens received two grants from the Colorado individual projects, practical training they will apply Water Conservation Board (CWCB) in conjunction with • Two artists in residence worked with staff and to their own horticultural industry. the One World One Water Center, a collaboration with collections, one from California, the other from Turkey. Metropolitan State University of Denver. One grant is Among the residency efforts were research into native for education and engagement in the Science Pyramid Colorado flora and teaching. Chatfield Farms and a second for restoration work in the South Platte • Santa’s Village was a new event that replaced Trail of River Basin. • Twelve students received a foundational certificate in Lights and turned Chatfield Farms into the North Pole botanical illustration. from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. It was a success and will continue in 2018. • Five visiting instructors (Turkey, U.K., U.S.) conducted upper-level classes. • The second annual Lavender Festival drew 10,000 people to enjoy music, food and drinks as well as • Three original artworks were accessioned into the lavender products, crafts and workshops. Gardens’ permanent art collection. (TOP TO BOTTOM): Alexander Calder, Six Dots Over a Mountain, 1956. Painted steel and metal rods, • Nearly 45,000 people attended Pumpkin Festival while • A cross-departmental team created a new 156 ½” x 212 ¼” x 79 5/8". Lent by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture 51,636 attended Corn Maze and the haunted maze. Learning Engagement Framework that defines Garden, Smithsonian Institution. © Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. five major categories of visitor engagement: Kniphofia triangularis at Katse Botanical Gardens, Lesotho, Africa • A new bridge was installed and new path paved to appreciating, participating, understanding, enhance visitor experience at Chatfield Farms. transforming and stewarding. Center for Global Initiatives • Overall attendance at Chatfield Farms totaled • Interpretation efforts yielded 48 new bilingual 196,911. A new record! interpretive signs at both York Street and Chatfield • “Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountain Farms locations and also supported six thematic Region” (published in 2018) will be one in a series of orangery displays. several field guides that Timber Press is developing for Development specific North American regions, and was authored by • Naming gifts for the Freyer – Newman Center and • The Gardens hosted the national symposium, “The 11 staff experts. The book is a handy, illustrated users’ other private and foundation gifts for a total of Nature of Exhibitions” through the American Public guide to 1,200 species of wildflowers in the Rocky $13,868,208, bringing the overall funding for the Gardens Association. Mountain states and the Canadian Rockies. project to $36,369,952. • Curator of Steppe Collections Mike Bone participated • More than 1,200 people gave their first gift to the in a botanical expedition to the kingdom of Lesotho Gardens Fund, bringing the total number of donors in southern Africa in January, in collaboration with to 3,051, a 27% increase over the previous year. botanists from the Munich Botanical Garden as well Major gifts provided vital funding for Outreach and as local botanists. The steppe habitat of the locations Educational Access programming. visited hold numerous plants that could be potential (TOP TO BOTTOM): landscape plants in our semi-arid climate. Drying lavender at Chatfield Farms Architectural rendering of the entrance to the Freyer – Newman Center 4 5 Education & Library • Through the Index