NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN annual report 2014 Celebrating 50 Years NTBG Annual Report 2014 1 MESSAGE FROM CHIPPER WICHMAN AND MERRILL MAGOWAN We are pleased to share with our supporters improvements will engage the hearts and National Tropical Botanical Garden’s 2014 minds of our visitors and leave them with a Annual Report. The year was a milestone for deeper understanding of the importance of NTBG that marked 50 years since we received tropical plants and the mission-driven work our Congressional Charter! As you read NTBG undertakes. In turn, this will generate through this beautiful report you will begin to new revenue, new members and new donors see the impact that our founders envisioned to build a more sustainable foundation for when they petitioned Congress in the early NTBG’s future. Chipper Wichman 1960s. At 50, NTBG has grown and matured A second highlight of the year was the into a collection of gardens of exceptional international symposium – “Agents of beauty and mission-driven programs whose Change” – that we held in Washington, impact is felt around the world. DC, in October. Co-sponsored by the The celebration of our actual “birthday” National Museum of Natural History it on August 19, 2014, stands out as one of brought together botanical garden leaders, the highlights of our 50th year. More than scientists and researchers to discuss the 400 people gathered to be part of our role of botanic gardens in the 21st century. celebration, which included the dedication Leading up to the symposium, National of the Inouye Overlook, the opening of the Geographic Society published editorials Biodiversity Trail, aerial performers, and from ey NTBG sta on its website that Merrill Magowan the cutting of a large birthday cake with reached hundreds of thousands of readers a machete! It was a day that we will all world-wide. Following the symposium we remember for a long time. What made it had a gala dinner with Thomas L. Friedman, even more memorable was that it marked internationally renowned author, reporter the point at which we began to implement and New York Times columnist as the a new business model that will help to dinner speaker. It was an extraordinary sustain NTBG in our second fty years way to celebrate our origins in Washington, NTBG’s capital campaign is raising money to DC, and the impact that gardens like NTBG transform the McBryde Garden our flagship are having addressing some of the world’s garden - into a cutting-edge environmental most pressing problems. education experience for our visitors. The We invite you to read about the highlights opening of the Biodiversity Trail marks the of our 50th anniversary year and the rst of a series of improvements that we will important role that each of our ve, very construct over the next several years that special and very dierent, gardens play in will make McBryde Garden more accessible, shaping NTBG’s future. more educational, and more fun! The Chipper Wichman Merrill Magowan hief Executive Ocer and Director hairman of the Board of Trustees 2 Fifty NTBG Annual Report 2014 3 FIFTY was a monumental supporters from the community all in high year for us as we spirits as we mared our rst half century marked our 50th n 01 we had much to reflect on and 2014 anniversary with much to celebrate, but also much to celebratory events and public oerings, consider as we recognized the urgency using the occasion to reflect on all we of work in the next 50 years. In the face have achieved, while looking ahead at the of unprecedented global environmental important work that remains. challenges, we are eager to move forward. We also believe that broadening our base It has been half a century since our of supporters in the local, national, and organization was created by a Congressional international community is critical to Charter on August 19, 1964. That event was ensuring we can remain sustainable and remembered 50 years to the day with an productive in the years ahead. open house in our flagship McBryde Garden that included celebratory speeches, flowers, With this in mind, we invite you to read in and the blessing of a passing shower. the following pages how we celebrated our Trees were festooned with hanging orchids past and all that we have achieved as our and a newly completed trail highlighting extended NTBG ‘ohana (family) boldly steps biodiversity was lined with Garden forward into our next 50 years. sta, Trustees, Fellows, volunteers, and 15 The Kampong Fifty 5 show ince its completion in 2008, the In painstaking detail the prints depict Juliet Rice Wichman Botanical plants discovered and collected by Research Center (BRC) has provided Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander and Swork, study, and archival space for our British botanist Sir Joseph Banks who Science and Conservation departments as accompanied ames oo on his rst well as visiting researchers, students, and voyage across the acic 111 the public. Today this state-of-the-art LEED Gold certied building houses a herbarium For the “Voyage of Discovery Art Exhibition” with approximately 72,000 specimens, a we selected 30 prints which were displayed seed bank, and a botanical library. inside the BRC. Following a private reception, the exhibition was open free to Our peers recognize the BRC as an the public for two months during which exceptional facility, but it’s not widely more than 1,000 people visited the BRC, nown outside of the scientic community most for the rst time iewers included n an eort to increase the visibility of residents, island visitors, and people who the research center, while sharing our traveled from neighboring islands to see rarely-seen, valuable resources with a new this rare exhibit that proved so popular it audience, we hosted two art exhibitions was extended an additional month. inside the BRC as part of our anniversary celebrations. In June we presented a second exhibition in the BRC – “The Living Endemic Birds of The BRC is home to a collection of more Hawai‘i.” Like “Voyage of Discovery,” the than 5,000 historical books, exceptionally public was invited to view the exhibit of rare volumes of botanical literature, and 33 paintings by celebrated artist Marian printed works dating back to the 16th Berger, who painted nearly four dozen birds century. Among our collection is a complete endemic to Hawai‘i. Rendered in the style of set (one of only 100 produced) of original famed ornithologist John James Audubon, hand-colored botanical prints made from Berger’s watercolor portraits depict engraved cooperplates based on 18th Hawaiian birds such as honeycreepers, century watercolors. nches, stilts, and the Hawaiian crow in their natural habitat. The exhibition, displayed in its entirety for the rst time, was visited by more than 600 people. 15 The Kampong Fifty 7 song n April we took our celebrations outdoors Food trucks on the edge of the meadow as we hosted “Musical Legends in the sold snacks and refreshments, allowing Garden,” a concert that featured eight concert goers to have lunch in the shade I of Hawai‘i’s top musical acts. Along with of monkey pod trees as they enjoyed an Hawaiian Legends Ledward Ka‘apana and exciting mix of slack key guitar, ‘ukulele, Mike Ka‘awa, the line-up included half a Hawaiianinfluenced blues, and hula dozen of Hawai‘i’s favorite musicians and performances. After Jerry Douglas’s set, headlining act Jerry Douglas. A13-time the entire line-up gathered on stage for a Grammy Award winner, Douglas is a master kanikapila (impromptu jam) during which of the dobro, a resonator guitar popular in the musicians clearly had as much fun as country, blues, and bluegrass music. the audience, some of whom had taken to dancing barefoot on the grass. “Musical Legends” was held in the open meadow beside our Southshore Visitors “Musical Legends” was widely hailed as enter on a flawless spring day The all a success not only for its entertainment afternoon event was attended by some value but also for introducing NTBG to a 1,000 people including our sta, members, new audience who surely will return to the Trustees, as well as Kaua‘i’s Mayor garden again and again. Bernard Carvalho and Hawai‘i’s Governor Neil Abercrombie. 8 Fifty The Kampong 16 CELEBRATION uch of the rst half of 01 saw our On that sunny summer day, we gathered sta woring furiously to complete a along the newly completed Biodiversity major new feature in the McBryde Trail beneath towering trees decorated with MGarden – an 800-foot-long hanging orchids and new plantings lining meandering ‘Biodiversity Trail’ designed to the trail. The celebration began as local tell the story of 450 million years of plant school children formed a giant “50,” which life and botanical evolution. The trail was was captured with aerial photography. formally opened to the public on the 19th of August – 50 years to the day since the Some 400 people gathered in McBryde signing of our Congressional Charter. For Garden as our President and CEO Chipper sta, volunteers, and supporters, this was Wichman was joined by the Garden’s new the big day when we came together to Chairman of the Board Tom Hewitt and celebrate all that had been accomplished visiting dignitaries Kaua‘i Mayor Bernard and renew our commitment to the Garden’s Carvalho and Irene Hirano, the wife of the founding principles of plant conservation, late Sen. Daniel Inouye, a life-long friend research, and education. and supporter of the Garden. After introducing a scenic lookout named in honor o Sen nouye, hipper led all in attendance along the rst public wal down the new trail to an expansive part of the garden for a celebratory outdoor lunch, speeches, and “50th birthday” cake.