Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is joining the Bowdoin College Museum of Art for a collaboration celebrating the artistic talents of two New England botanists, watercolorist Kate Furbish and photographer Edwin Hale Lincoln. Bowdoin’s New England Botanical Studies exhibit addresses the relationship between the arts and sciences in the interest of botany at the dawn of the American industrial age.

Fittingly, this collaboration encompasses both locales, traveling between Bowdoin and the Gardens. On Saturday, Oct. 13 photographer, Guggenheim Fellow, and Bowdoin professor of art Mike Kolster will present a class using Edwin Hale Lincoln’s photographs as its primary inspiration. The class will examine the relevance of Lincoln’s work to our own moment in time while exploring the value of close observation of botanical specimens and the role framing, focusing and lighting play in photography. Ample time will be available for participants both to generate and to review each other’s images. Running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the cost of the session is $95 for CMBG members, $110 non-members.

Then on Oct. 19, Melissa Cullina, CMBG’s Research Botanist; Kat Stefko, Director of Bowdoin’s George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives; and Frank Goodyear, Co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art collaborate in a tour of the Bowdoin exhibit. With this bevy of knowledgeable guides, participants will examine the rich body of work by Furbish and Lincoln, each of whom created a vast pictorial archive of work in their chosen medium. Although their work did not intersect during their lifetimes, they pictured many of the same species, and their projects were motivated by similar ambitions. Directions and meeting location will be sent to participants in advance of the trip scheduled from 2-3:30 p.m. The price of the tour is $38 for CMBG members and $46 for nonmembers.

The collaboration culminates on Nov. 7 with a free event led by Melissa Cullina. This special tour of the exhibit will take place at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, from noon to 1 p.m. During the tour, Cullina will speak about the plants so carefully depicted by Lincoln and Furbish, noting natural history features and habitat preferences of each. She’ll also shed light on the artistic and botanical pursuits of the artists themselves. This tour is free and open to the public.

This series of classes represents the next stage in an ongoing partnership between both institutions. “We have valued greatly the expert counsel of Melissa Cullina and other botanists at CMBG,” says Dr. Goodyear. “They have helped with plant identifications—it’s wonderful to have such friendly and knowledgeable colleagues here in Midcoast Maine.”

“We are truly delighted to continue our collaborative work with Bowdoin,” added Cullina. “This ongoing series of co-sponsored, multifaceted educational programs celebrates the nexus of botanical art and botanical science.”

For more information or to register for classes, visit MaineGardens.org.

The mission of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is to inspire meaningful connections among people, plants, and nature through horticulture, education and research.