Hastings Botanic Garden project brings Brazil to Hastings Museum and Art Gallery this weekend.

Hastings Garden Festival returns to the Museum

Hastings Botanic Garden Project brings their Garden Festival back to Hastings Museum & Art Gallery for the third year next Sunday (14 September). The event will be a FREE festival filled with family fun, kids’ activities – and food and music from Brazil – all inspired by the amazing botanic artist Marianne North, who was born in Hastings in 1830 and spent a year in Brazil. Erica Smith encourages you to visit Brazil from the comfort of your own local Museum.

The Hastings Botanic Garden Project plans to transform the Museum and its grounds into an exotic garden experience. You will be able to pick up plants from local nurseries and learn about how Hastings is poised to become the Garden Town of the South East.

While the kids enjoy circus skills outside on the grass, grown-ups can explore student displays in the Durbar Hall and sample Brazilian cocktails, dance to the samba sounds, listen to story tellers and enjoy delicious food. Whether you’re a mum or dad, grandparent or a seasoned gardener, this event is perfect for anyone with a green thumb and a love for Nature.

Two inspirational speakers

In addition to the colourful, family activities, the great great niece of Marianne North, Christine Blakemore will be speaking about her remarkable ancestor. And the noted conservationist and explorer Dr Rosa Vasquez Espinoza will talk about the Amazon and her book, The Spirit of the Rainforest.

Inspired by her grandmother’s wisdom as a healer, Espinoza has spent her career combining cutting-edge science and traditional knowledge to protect biodiversity in the Peruvian Amazon. As the founder of Amazon Research International, she works with indigenous communities to explore the jungle’s untapped biodiversity.

Often travelling to remote ecosystems on the planet, Espinoza’s work includes discovering new bacteria in the Amazon’s legendary Boiling River, and leading the first chemical analysis of stingless bees and medicinal honey in Peru. She is also an international ambassador of the Ashaninka people, one of the largest indigenous groups in South America.

Who was Marianne North?

​As a woman of the 1800s, Marianne North was a rare example of someone who, while self-educated, came to be respected by some of the leading men of her day, such as Charles Darwin. Marianne North is still a celebrated artist with most of her work being housed at Kew Gardens.

The Marianne North Gallery is the oldest permanent Gallery dedicated to a female artist in the UK.

Five of the plants that she painted have been attributed to her and are identified using the Northia species name.

Her life story reflects many of today’s concerns about habitat loss, climate change and biodiversity. She lamented the abuse of natural world resources such as the towering redwoods of California: Sierra Nevada lost a third of its timber during the Gold Rush, an early indicator of today’s continuing challenges.

Marianne North continues to command a global following. In January 2023, US essayist Maria Popova (1.2m readers worldwide) wrote a glowing article about her entitled ‘Turning Loss and Loneliness into Wonder: How the Victorian Visionary Marianne North Revolutionized Art and Science with her Botanical Paintings’. That same year, RHS Chelsea Show included a panel depicting Marianne North in its Women in Horticulture display.

​Locally, people in Hastings are proud of Marianne North. Yet, though she has a pavilion hosting her remarkable paintings at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, there is still no monument to her in her home town.

It is the long-term aim of Hastings Botanic Garden Project to create a South Coast Botanic Garden for Hastings which inspires and commemorates the life and contribution of Marianne North and contributes to the wellbeing of local people. You can find out more about the organisation on their website.

The free festival runs from 12–5pm, Sunday 14 September, at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery in John’s Place, off Cambridge Road.

The festival is funded by Southern Water, HVA Community Nature Connections and The White Rock Hotel.

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