Marie Selby Botanical Gardens' Downtown Sarasota Campus

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens' Downtown Sarasota Campus

Welcome to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens!

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens provides 45 acres of bay-front sanctuaries connecting people with air plants of the world, native nature, and our regional history.  Established by forward thinking women of their time, Selby Gardens is composed of the 15-acre Downtown Sarasota campus and the 30-acre Historic Spanish Point campus in the Osprey area of Sarasota County, Florida. The Downtown Campus on Sarasota Bay is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, and other tropical plants. There is a significant focus on botany, horticulture, education, historical preservation, and the environment. The Historic Spanish Point (HSP) Campus is located less than 10 miles south along Little Sarasota Bay. The HSP Campus, one of the largest preserves showcasing native Florida plants that is interpreted for and open to the public, celebrates an archaeological record that encompasses approximately 5,000 years of Florida history.

Selby Gardens is a respected center for research and education. Selby Gardens is an open-air and under-glass museum of thousands of colorful and exotic plants.  Many of these plants have been collected from the wild by Selby Gardens’ research staff on more than 200 scientific expeditions to tropical rainforests. Our guests see beautiful horticultural displays and learn from our many educational programs.  They also take away with them a better understanding and greater appreciation of the natural world and the challenge it faces.

In 2013, Selby Gardens opened the Ann Goldstein Children’s Rainforest Garden at their Downtown Sarasota campus to attract children of all ages and further enhance Selby Gardens’ mission to provide an oasis of inspiration and tranquility, while furthering the understanding and appreciation of plants, especially epiphytes.

Extend your classroom to Selby Gardens by taking your students on an engaging, informative journey in our unique, tropical botanical gardens.  We offer specialized age-appropriate programs designed with curriculum in mind.  We are also happy to tailor a program in support of the unique needs and interests of your students.

Click here for our School Programs Guide.

Ready to book? Fill out the School Tour Booking Request Form here.

(A minimum of 10 students is required for the group rate.)

selby.org/dsc/dsc-school-teacher-programs/

EDUCATOR CONTACT INFO

schools@selby.org

http://www.selby.org/

  Sarasota, FL

941-366-5731 x 273

Rainforest Masks of Costa Rica (Grades K-2)

Program description

Rainforest Masks of Costa Rica (Grades K-2) 

Fantastic and impressively detailed, Rainforest Masks of Costa Rica returns annually to the Museum of Botany and the Arts at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus. This year, the masks will be on display from January 8-22, 2023.  

The Rainforest Masks of Costa Rica exhibition highlights the artistry of the Indigenous Boruca tribe of Costa Rica. For the Boruca artists, mask making is a way of life closely tied to their communal history and identity. Mask making is a collaborative process between skilled carvers and painters. A design is sketched onto a prepared balsa log, which is intricately carved. The carved mask is then painted with vibrant colors and bold patterns. Each mask combines imagery drawn from nature and the artists’ own imaginations. The result is an artistic expression unlike any other.  

Combined with a tour of our own rainforest gardens, this wild and wonderful exhibition of hundreds of hand-carved and painted masks is ideal for Spanish language classes, art classes, and, of course, science classes studying the rainforest. After viewing and sketching uniquely inspiring elements of these masks, students will have the opportunity to apply their experience by creating their own rainforest masks, drawing from either the tropical rainforest or from our natural environment here in Southwest Florida. 

Booking / scheduling contact

Anastasia Sallen, Director of Environmental Education

   941-366-5731, ext. 273

 schools@selby.org

Program detail
Artistic discipline:
Cultural Origin: Array, Array
Program type: Off-Campus Field Trip
Population served: K-2
Subject: Science, Visual Art
Bilingual: No
Fees / Ticketing:

10

Transportation

Is transportation needed for this exploration?: Yes
If Yes, who arranges transportation?: School
Is financial assistance offered?: Yes

Program info

Summer or Family Programs Offered?: yes