The International Garden Festival, presented at the Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens in the Gaspésie region of Quebec, is preparing its 16th edition and is issuing an international call for proposals to select designers who will create the new temporary gardens that will be presented from June 27 to September 27, 2015.
“Buzz” is the operative word guiding the 2015 Festival. The installations selected by the jury will have a special energy and connection to the natural world. The temporary gardens will have a central concept that will be clearly articulated and a degree of interactivity that encourages visitors to enter with enthusiasm and leave with a wish to dialogue and discuss. They will be bold or earthy, complex or very simple. The goal is to intrigue visitors with the unusual or to impress by new ways of presenting what is common. Incorporating vegetables and/or aromatic, medicinal or edible plants, the new gardens will be full of colour and intensity.
Designers may submit only one proposal as individuals or interdisciplinary teams composed of a landscape architect, architect, designer, artist, engineer, scientist, botanist, etc. The Festival encourages participants to form multidisciplinary teams to favour an approach that encompasses the various design disciplines. This call for proposals is open to Canadian and international designers. While they have beehives at the gardens and are working on pollinator projects, they are not looking for proposals that incorporate bees or beehives for safety reasons.
This call for proposals is open to all landscape architects, architects, designers and artists from Canada and abroad. For complete information on this call for proposals, those interested should visit www.projects.internationalgardenfestival.ca.
The deadline for the submission of entries is Monday, November 17, 2014 at 5:00pm EST. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.
The International Garden Festival is recognized as one of the most important events of its kind in North America and one of the leading annual garden festivals in the world. Since 2000, one million visitors have discovered more than 150 contemporary and ephemeral gardens created by designers from 15 countries. This art and tourism event also gives visitors a chance to discover inspiring spaces bringing together the visual arts, architecture, design, landscape and the environment. The Festival provides an annual rendez-vous for admirers of contemporary gardens and design as well as offering a unique space for those involved in the renewal of this art form. The Festival celebrates contemporary design and culture and hosts a series of culinary, cultural and musical events, workshops and master classes.
The International Garden Festival is a non-profit organization whose mission is the creation, exhibition and promotion of contemporary gardens. The event is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Emploi-Québec, the ministère du Tourisme and the Conférence régionale des éluEs du Bas-Saint-Laurent.
Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens are located on the shores of the St. Lawrence and Mitis rivers in Québec, Canada. Created from 1926 to 1958 by avid gardener and plant collector, Elsie Reford, the gardens are a national historic site. The gardens and heritage buildings were designated by the government of Québec in 2013. Les Jardins de Métis are considered one of the premier gardens in North America and an obligatory stop for all those visiting eastern Québec. Visit www.refordgardens.com for more details. Hydro-Québec has been a major partner of the Reford Gardens since 1999.