Selby Gardens and Gulf Coast Community Foundation continue long-established partnership

Selby Gardens and Gulf Coast Community Foundation continue long-established partnership

Gulf Coast to provide funding for a variety of Selby Gardens’ signature programs

SARASOTA, FL – September 27, 2021 – Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Selby Gardens) and Gulf Coast Community Foundation (Gulf Coast) are excited to announce an expansion of their long-standing partnership. During the year ahead, Gulf Coast will provide grant support for a variety of programs at Selby Gardens including the Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series signature exhibition, Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith: Flowers, Poetry, and Light; the My Garden membership program; and Seeing the Invisible: An Augmented Reality Contemporary Art Exhibition.

“Our collaboration with Selby Gardens has existed for many years and it continues to create a positive, long-lasting impact on our community,” says Mark Pritchett, President/CEO of Gulf Coast. “Selby Gardens continues to be a leader in launching creative programs designed to connect people to the many benefits of nature.”

“We’re thrilled to continue our vital partnership with Gulf Coast Community Foundation,” says Jennifer Rominiecki, President & CEO of Selby Gardens. “Their funding allows us to offer innovative programs at both of our campuses that connect diverse audiences to nature and our bayfront sanctuaries.”

Gulf Coast Community Foundation has provided funding annually for several of Selby Gardens’ signature programs including the Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series, which Gulf Coast has supported since 2016 – its inaugural year.

The foundation also allocated funding to support the third year of the My Garden program. Started in 2019, My Garden provides memberships to underserved children and their families in our region and has grown to include fourteen youth service partner agencies and given away more than 290 memberships into our community. The program is looking to expand further this year into the Osprey, Nokomis, Venice, and Englewood communities. The My Garden program is part of the Ann Winslow Donelly and Norbert Donelly Family and Community Engagement Series.

New this year, Gulf Coast will serve as the Lead Sponsor for Seeing the Invisible: An Augmented Reality Contemporary Art Exhibition which opened on September 25,2021 at Selby Gardens’ Historic Spanish Point campus.

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About Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens provides 45 acres of bayfront sanctuaries connecting people with air plants of the world, native nature, and our regional history. Established by forward thinking women of their time, Selby Gardens is composed of the 15-acre Downtown Sarasota campus and the 30-acre Historic Spanish Point campus in the Osprey area of Sarasota County, Florida. The Downtown Campus on Sarasota Bay is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, and other tropical plants. There is a significant focus on botany, horticulture, education, historical preservation, and the environment. The Historic Spanish Point (HSP) Campus is located less than 10 miles south along Little Sarasota Bay. The HSP Campus, one of the largest preserves showcasing native Florida plants that is interpreted for and open to the public, celebrates an archaeological record that encompasses approximately 5,000 years of Florida history. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is a Smithsonian Affiliate and is also accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. For more information visit www.selby.org.