MISSION-BASED IDENTIFICATION OF GARDEN AUDIENCES

Georgia Journal of Science, 2004 by Laufer, Geraldine Adamich

Key words: Atlanta Botanical Garden, Fuqua Orchid Center, air washer.

The Atlanta Botanical Garden is a small urban Garden located just three miles from the city center in Midtown Atlanta. Since it was chartered in 1976 with a 50-year lease, it has occupied 30 acres adjacent to Piedmont Park, the most heavily used public park in the City. The Garden encompasses 15 acres of well-respected cultivated gardens, 15 acres of old growth woods and two acres for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Children's Garden (1999), along with the Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory (1989), the new Fuqua Orchid Center (2002), Gardenhouse (1985), the administrative center, and Exhibit Hall (2002) that houses the Children's Learning Center. The Garden was organized by a grassroots group of citizens in the mid-1970s without benefit of a bequest or estate grounds, and is privately funded under the leadership of Mary Pat Matheson, executive director. Responsiveness to the surrounding community has always been its touchstone. Because of its proximity to downtown, the Garden is well situated and hosts a wide variety of public and private events. But the true nature of its audience arises from its mission statement, which is carried into every aspect of the Garden's operations.

Mission Statement

The Mission of the Atlanta Botanical Garden is to develop and maintain plant collections for display, education, research, conservation and enjoyment.

By examining each facet of the mission by turn, it becomes easy to identify the Garden's audience.

Display

The beautiful grounds of the Garden, its plant collections, container plantings, demonstration gardens, hardscaping and water features provide a natural invitation to commercial landscapers, landscape architects, garden designers and design/build groups, an important professional component of the audience. For example, the Garden frequently extends "Southern hospitality" to the Southern Nursery Association (SNA), inviting them to put the Garden on its tour schedule for their annual conference participants. The Metro-Atlanta Landscape and Turf Association (MALTA) is invited to hold its monthly dinner meetings in the exhibition space known as Day Hall at no charge. Freelance garden writers and photographers who want to visit the Garden on a story, or to observe new introductions and to take advantage of the extensive plant labeling that streamlines their jobs, need only contact the Public Relations Department for free admission. Photographers, videographers and film-makers shoot both privately and on assignment. Although students are allowed to work for free depending on the workflow at the Garden, location fees for commercial photographers provide a source of revenue. Local television stations know the Garden welcomes members of the media. Public service announcements, such as the recently aired "Wednesday's Child," a network program highlighting two specific children available for adoption on their tour through the Children's Garden, are admitted free and Garden staff is provided for their assistance. Leads for Atlanta-based CNN segments are often taped here, and the Garden is thanked on-air or in their credits.

Education

Education is perhaps the most important aspect of the Garden's mission, and many segments of the population are addressed. A quarterly class schedule, published by the Education Department, is sent to the Garden's 10,000 members and provides dates, times and registration information on a wide variety of educational offerings. Garden members may take advantage of "members only" programs such as the monthly Q & A program "Gardening Month By Month" and receive discounts on all classes offered.

Direct-mail postcards detail events and speakers at day-long symposia offered spring and fall and are also sent to announce international speakers visiting ABG to present lectures for the Alston Lectures and Calhoun Lecture series.

Calendar Editors of Atlanta newspapers and electronic media are sent monthly calendars of classes and events for their calendar listings by the Marketing and Public Relations Department. Homeowners read about (and subsequently flock to) evening classes and short courses on subjects as varied as garden design and bee keeping.

Community college students enrolled in courses such as Plant Identification take advantage of the grounds and extensive plant collections. (For a number of years, ABG made a classroom available to Gwinnett Technical Institute for classes in Environmental Horticulture.)

Apart from adult education, an extensive education program for toddlers, children and youth ranges from curriculum-related school tours to Saturday outdoor amphitheater programs, and from Scouting badges to "Young Sprouts" and "Stroller Strut" activities for pre-schoolers. The Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Children's Garden opened in 1999 as a conscious effort to encourage families with young children to become Garden members. Although a 2-acre, $3 million children's garden may seem an extreme tactic to bring in an audience, it has paid big dividends in increased membership and repeat visitation. The Summer Environmental Day Camp typically fills through word of mouth, but it could be advertised at the Summer Camp Fairs held by several private schools in the city or in annual camp issue of Atlanta Parent magazine.