A New Season Sprouts at LongHouse

     LongHouse Reserve offered a preview to both a sale of textiles from the collection of Jack Lenor Larsen and to what patrons will see on Saturday when the gardens open to the public for the season.

     The textiles and objects for sale include Indian blouse fronts, a silk hanging for designed for the Sears Tower in Chicago, Pennsylvania German hooked rugs, and other woven pieces from Peru, Anatolia, and other locations in the Americas, Africa and Asia. There are some 200 objects in all. While the preview took place on Saturday with a talk by Mr. Larsen, the sale of the objects will continue in many price points.

     The “Rites of Spring” opening event will take place on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. at LongHouse Reserve. In addition to the profusion of daffodils and usual sculpture installations, there will be new installations by artists including Steve Miller, Fitzhugh Karol, and Gaston Lachaise.

     Mr. Miller will show his “Health of the Planet” series of plant and animal life from the rainforest depicted on glass panels. Mr. Karol works in wood in abstract ways that reference the landscape. Lachaise, a French-American sculpture, who straddled the 19th and 20th centuries, will be represented by a nine-foot tall cast bronze sculpture of “Heroic Man,” a male nude. 

Entrance to the gardens is $10 and free for members. The gardens will remain open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2 to 5 p.m. through October. In July and August the will open from Wednesday through Saturday during the same hours.