Centennial event includes art gallery, workshops, Shakespeare performance

By the Thirst Team

Tagawa Gardens always boasts plenty of color in its wide range of flowers and plants. It will add new forms of eye-catching artistry later this month.

The famed plant nursery and garden center will host its first fall art festival on Saturday, Sept. 23, with an art gallery opening, hands-on activities and a Shakespeare performance.

“Nature offers us abundant inspiration, and nothing illustrates that like the imagination of artists,” said Tom Littman, Tagawa's community programs coordinator. “We want to give our guests the opportunity to connect with their creative capacity and to rediscover the hidden inspiration in their backyard.”

This is the first art festival at Tagawa, but the longtime business regularly supports a variety of artists.

“From the early days of our family-owned business, we have supported the arts and featured local artists at many of our events,” said Lindsay Squires, Tagawa’s community development manager. “From watercolor workshops to botanical art shows to bonsai displays, we love the natural interweaving of art in the garden. A few years ago, we also featured two children's art shows. We were amazed and inspired by the imagination of all the young artists who shared their work with us.”

Originally growing long-stem roses for the commercial trade, the Tagawa family opened a small garden center to the public in 1982. Since then, the business, 7711 S. Parker Road, in Centennial, has expanded and diversified into one of the area's premier destination garden centers.

The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and is free to attend, including a live play and a paper-making demonstration at noon with local artist that5280lady. The artist specializes in using recycled materials to make whimsical art, and will demonstrate paper-making with recycled junk mail.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts’s Shakespeare in the Parking Lot troupe will present an abridged 45-minute version of “A Midsummer Night's Dream” at 2 p.m.

Various guest artists also will be showcased during the event, alongside live music, face painting and gelato. Artists from Parker Art Studio and Little Glass Art also will lead participants in making hand-built clay planters and glass mosaic pendants. Each workshop costs $40, and is limited to 30 or fewer participants.

Tagawa will accept submissions for the “Paint by Nature” art gallery through Sept 16. The works will be on display from Sept. 23 to Oct. 15. A variety of media will be accepted as long as it fits the creative prompt: "How Does Nature Inspire You?" Squires and Littman hope to draw in both professional artists as well as the hobbyists she meets at Tagawa Gardens.

“So much talent walks through the door of our garden center every day,” Squires said. “Each person has a unique gift to contribute, and we want to create an intentional opportunity for those creative gifts to shine.”