Fees for Upcoming Special Events. The Chicago Park District now requires the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance to charge an entrance fee for all events (instead of requesting suggested donations from guests). Members of the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, however, will receive free admission to these events. Please be aware that the Alliance will be charging admissions fees to the general public for the following events in the future:

Summer Tropical Flower Show    
Saturday, May 29th – Sunday, September 26th
Hours: 9 am – 5 pm daily, Wednesdays until 8 pm
Where: Show House
Cost: Free! Just drop by!

The Garfield Park Conservatory’s Summer Tropical Flower show is a great place for Chicagoans to get ideas for their own summer gardens. While tropical plants cannot withstand Chicago winters, most of the plants found in this show can be grown outdoors during the summer. This year’s show features more than a dozen dark and purple-leafed plants, including Black Magic Colocasia, Stobilanthes, and Red Shield Hibiscus. Expanding the foliage palette are nearly twenty different varieties of Coleus. Visitors can learn how to use dark foliage to set off brighter plants and flowers or simply add depth to an otherwise flat planting bed or container.  

The next flower show, the Holiday Flower Show will open November 26th and run through January 9, 2011.
 

10th Annual County Fair 
Saturday, September 18th
Hours: 11 am – 4 pm
Where: Throughout the Conservatory
Cost: $5 per person, children age 3 and under are free, Members are free

Experience the excitement of a county fair in the middle of the city, Chicago’s original urban hoedown at the 10th Annual County Fair on Saturday, Sept. 18th.  

County Fair is an annual event celebrating both the annual harvest and healthy communities in an urban setting on Chicago’s west side. The event will illustrate for visitors traditional harvest practices and new possibilities in urban agriculture.

Attendees can experience agricultural traditions, the best in urban gardening, and horticultural exhibits and demonstrations. The connection between plants, food and American heritage are highlighted through a variety of activities, demonstrations and entertainment planned for the day. As a family-focused event, the day is filled with the following down-home fun activities:

As we will be hosting a majority of this event on our grounds and in our parking lot this year, please plan on parking on the street or Garfield Park’s field house parking lot, 100 N Central Park Ave.

Harvest Showcase at County Fair

Calling all growers – enter the 2010 Harvest Showcase! This is a chance for home and family gardeners, community gardeners and school gardeners to gather and show off the fruits of their labor. Each participant will be given a small tabletop space at County Fair to display a little piece of their growing season. It could be a fruit or vegetable specimen, a flower arrangement, a photo album of your growing season, a craft or product from your garden, or something else completely unique.

Harvest Showcase Information PDF

Chicago Premiere of “Vanishing of the Bees” Documentary Film    
Wednesday, September 15th
Hours: 6 pm – 8:45 pm
Where: Jensen Room at the Garfield Park Conservatory
Cost: $37.92 per person in advance, to benefit the North Lawndale Employment Network

The North Lawndale Employment Network and Sweet Beginnings, LLC are pleased to present an educational fundraiser event sponsored by the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance: the Chicago premiere of the groundbreaking documentary, "Vanishing of the Bees." This event includes a reception with light hors d'oeuvres, a pre-film panel discussion, the film screening, and a post-film Q&A session. Our discussion panel includes John Hansen, Head Beekeeper of Sweet Beginnings and Past-President of the Illinois State Beekeepers Association, Julio Tuma, Beekeeper at the Garfield Park Conservatory, and others. Filmed in the U.S. and around the world, this grassroots documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds for humans and their relationship with the planet. This comprehensive film covers topics such as: honey bee health, industrial beekeeping methods, the pollination of monoculture crops, and the effects of systemic pesticides. This event is family and children friendly and is a great way to learn about bees, where our food comes from, the ecosystem, and more.

For more information and to purchase tickets to the event, please click here or contact Michael Malecek at 773-638-7060.  

Screening of “Jens Jensen: Harmonious World” Documentary Film   
Thursday, September 23rd
Hours: 7 pm – 10 pm
Where: Jensen Room at the Garfield Park Conservatory
Cost: Free!

In the early 20th century, visionary landscape architect Jens Jensen was green before the word ecology even existed. Highly ethical and inspired by nature, he created landscapes for Chicago’s working poor, and was the visionary architect behind the Garfield Park Conservatory. "Jens Jensen Harmonious World" is a documentary filmed for PBS by Carey Lundin and Mark Frazel of Viva Lundin Productions, based in Chicago. The film will help Americans better appreciate what landscape architecture is and how the early fight for conservation was won through design and vision as much as politics. A “rough cut” of the film will be screened, and guests are encouraged to share their opinions to help complete the film.

For more information about the film, please visit the Jens Jensen Harmonious World website.

This screening is part of a larger “Jens Jensen Legacy Project” event series being held between August 11th and October 29th. For information about other events taking place to celebrate Jensen’s 150th birthday, please visit the Jens Jensen Legacy Project website.

Inspired by Nature Photo Exhibit    
Daily
Hours: 9 am – 5 pm daily
Where: Community Room
Cost: Free! Just drop by!

Formerly at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the photo exhibit accompanying Julia Bachrach and Jo Ann Nathan’s book Inspired by Nature: The Garfield Park Conservatory and Chicago’s West Side is now at the Conservatory! This exhibit includes photographs, drawings and maps highlighting the history of the Garfield Park Conservatory and the West Side in honor of the Conservatory’s Centennial year. The book Inspired by Nature: The Garfield Park Conservatory and Chicago’s West Side is available for purchase in the Gift Shop. 

Please note: Because the Community Room is often rented to outside organizations, please contact the front desk of the Conservatory at 312-746-5100 before your visit to make sure the exhibit will be open to the public while you are here.