Martin Segger

February 22 | 2-4pm
Victoria’s Embrace of the Arts and Crafts Garden Aesthetic

In the heyday of Victoria’s great estate gardens,1900–1930, the Arts and Crafts garden reigned supreme. A rapidly rising entrepreneurial class needed to publicly confirm its wealth and status. Expert botanists, nurserymen, and estate-trained head gardeners streamed in from England to assist. Global influences included fashions ranging from alpinism to adventure tourism, combined with a flood of exotic flora from far afield places such as the South Pacific and East Asia. The estate garden was popularized by photographers and watercolour artists who mingled with influential patrons in the annual salons of the Island Arts and Crafts Society. The gardens themselves became a stage-set for the seasonal round of fetes, teas, picnics, receptions and weddings, tennis and croquet matches—regular fixtures in the social whirl of the town’s moneyed professional classes, politicians, clerical elites, and military officers. Martin Segger will provide an overview of this fascinating period in Victoria’s horticultural history.

About Martin Segger

Martin Segger, a UVic professor emeritus and adjunct professor of Canadian art and architecture, was director and curator of the Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery from 1979 until his retirement in 2010. In 1982, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He also spent several years (1988–1993) as a politician on Victoria’s City Council, where his portfolio included heritage conservation as well as cultural and arts affairs. More recently, he was awarded the King Charles Coronation Medal for service to the arts and elected a Hon. Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. He has written numerous books and produced films on art and architectural history. Currently he is coordinating a group seeking to have Greater Victoria recognized as a UNESCO urban Biosphere Reserve and is writing a book: “Tending Eden: a Garden History of Victoria,” from which this lecture is derived.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Martin Segger.