Boning back up: Popular Skeleton Grove returns to Holden Arboretum
Published by: The News-Herald
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Both spooky and spectacular, Skeleton Grove has returned to the Holden Arboretum’s Main Display Garden just in time for fall. Seeing its playful skeletons is included with admission to the Kirtland attraction.
After the great success of last year’s event, parent organization Holden Forests & Gardens put out the call in the spring to Northeast Ohio artists to find those interested in creating a work to place in the garden during the weeks before Halloween, when fall color is at its peak. Using a 12-foot-tall skeleton, each artist was challenged to create a seasonal work telling a story about the nature surrounding us.
“We got 38 very thought-provoking submissions,” said Beth Kelley, director of guest experiences for the arboretum. “The Grove is open through Nov. 19, and each work had to hold up to the weather we get this time of year, and each had to tell a story.” The staff made its choices for 14 creations and distributed the tall skeletons to artists on Memorial Day, giving them a few months to apply their visions to skeletons in their studios.
“Everything else, including extra, smaller skeletons, had to be provided by the artist,” she said.
Ceramic artist Dawn Blattel, an art teacher for 15 years at Wooster City Schools, sourced extra-sturdy clay for creating the ceramic leaves she placed around the skeleton she named “Olivia Treasureleaf” and gathered leaves at the arboretum to press out accurate designs. To make them in the fall colors she’d envisioned for her skeleton, she used a glaze-pour method of her own creation to bring them to life in ceramic.
Blattel was the 2022 recipient of the Outstanding Art Teacher Award by the Ohio Art Education Association.
Abby Cipar created the rainbow-colored bones of “Scarlet Beebalm,” the skeleton welcoming folks to the arboretum’s Corning Visitor Center, at the beginning of the trail.
The introduction to “Scarlet” says her not-so-secret talent is knowing when every flower will bloom.
Holden Forests & Gardens’ website, holdenfg.org, introduces the various skeletons through a short quiz challenging readers to find their match. One leading to Scarlet says: “You bring color wherever you go. Like Scarlet, you’re expressive, passionate and constantly finding inspiration in the world around you. You understand that life changes with the seasons and know how to appreciate each one for what it offers.”
Pumpkins are the muse for “Walter Wittlewood,” called “The Elusive Lanternmaker” by artist Ezra Bender.
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