Botanical art gallery prepares to open (1)

THE world's first gallery dedicated to botanical art is gearing up to open, featuring gems previously hidden from public view.

The £3 million attraction will exhibit art from the collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Dr Shirley Sherwood, many of which have never been on public display before.

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens, opening on Saturday, is the first gallery in the world dedicated to botanical art and will be open to the public all year round, organisers said.

The Royal Botanic Gardens has a vast collection of more than 200,000 art works.

Kew's collection of botanical art includes illustrations of extinct species for which it believes the artwork could be the only surviving record.

The new building is physically linked to the Marianne North Gallery, a permanent display of Victorian botanical and landscape paintings.

Many works need a climate-controlled environment with managed light levels.

A spokeswoman for the gallery said: "Until now, although the collection has been consulted by experts and researchers, most of the works have been kept in study collections behind the scenes.

"The new gallery will provide the right environment and will make Kew's collections more accessible, ensuring that the 1.3 million annual visitors to Kew Gardens can see the treasures on public display."

Dr Sherwood has been collecting contemporary botanical art since 1990.

Her collection includes work by more than 200 artists living in 30 different countries and documents the emergence of a new wave of botanical painters and the renaissance of their art form.

The spokeswoman continued: "Arguably the most important private collection of twentieth century botanical art in the world, these art works complement Kew's own collection which has a rich heritage of 18th and 19th century illustrations as well as more recent acquisitions.

"With one quarter of the world's species of flowering plants threatened by extinction in the next 50 years, Kew has a vital role to play to inspire and deliver science-based plant conservation.

"The beauty, rarity and accuracy of the images displayed in The Shirley Sherwood Gallery will raise public awareness of the beauty and fragility of the natural world."