by Carla Caruso

Do you like your wanders through the Park Lands with a side of art?

Adele Butler is behind a new concept at the Adelaide Botanic Garden (Park 11): a pop-up art and gift shop, featuring work by 20 SA artists.

The Botanic Art Collective will hold its next event, Botanic Christmas Beauty, at the Noel Lothian Hall (near the rose garden) from this Friday to Sunday, December 2-4.

The idea for a pop-up art shop came to Adele, a teacher and emerging painter and wire sculptor (above), back in January.

Though she lives an hour-and-a-half away in Riverton, she enjoys visiting the Botanic Garden with her two children when in town.

“I came to the gardens with my daughter, Marie, one day because she needed a boost. She had a day away from school.

“But when I went there, I just sort of thought to myself, ‘Gee, I left the gardens and where’s the artwork? I need artwork to be here.’

“[My husband] James and I started an art collective in a little gallery shop in Angaston a couple of years ago. All the artists share the costs of being in the shop, but we all help each other out, and it’s been really, really good.

“So, from that experience, when I came to the gardens, my brain was working in art mode and I was thinking, ‘Oh, it’d be so good if there was art here [aside from the small displays].’”

She got in touch with the garden’s management, and in August, the collective held its first event during the SALA festival. Another showcase followed amid the Nature Festival in October, in which they had 800 people wandering through.

Now the collective’s gearing up for its Christmas event this week. Ten per cent of the sales will be donated to the garden’s South Australian Seed Conservation Centre.

All the artwork, set to be showcased, is inspired by the beauty of plants and birds.

“We want to offer things that are affordable and realistic for anyone who walks in the doors. So, things are priced right down to $5,” Adele say.

“It’s not like an exhibition where you go and gaze at all the works, and some people might be rich enough to buy a painting, and you get a red-dot sticker stuck on the label.

“It’s more like an exhibition-slash-market where, if you like what you see, you can buy it and take it home [then and there].”

A variety of media will be on show. “We’ve got mosaics and wood and things made from fabric [plus] fine art jewellery, silver jewellery, and jewellery made from upcycled kitchen stuff.

“Some of the earrings that were in the last show were made from anodised saucepan lids – you don’t really know what you’re going to find!”

The event’s also about bringing people to the Botanic Garden, according to Adele. “I think it’s a shared, wonderful treasure that we’ve all got access to. But so many people that I talk to say, ‘Oh, I haven’t been there for years; I forgot about the gardens.’

“And also because I know that when you go to places, it’s nice to have things that make an outing really enjoyable [like food and art].”

As well, Adele says it’s an opportunity for local artists to have their “work out there, being seen by people who appreciate it, and get a lot of great feedback”.

The artists will each take a turn in the shop, so visitors may even get a chance to chat to the person behind a piece they take home.

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On the topic of art, the biennial Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize is on again. Entries are now open, with a $50,000 prize pool on offer.