Mark your calendar for the 10th Annual Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition, “Alexander Calder: The Nature of Movement,” opening Sunday, February 8, 2026. Selby Gardens members get early access on Friday, February 6.
This year, they’re bringing Calder’s original works into the galleries at the Richard and Ellen Sandor Museum of Botany & the Arts. But that’s just the start. The Display Conservatory and gardens across the Downtown Sarasota campus will come alive with horticultural vignettes inspired by Calder’s creative spirit.
It’s a big milestone for Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Ten years of the Goldstein Exhibition Series, each one connecting the work of groundbreaking artists to the world of plants and nature, right here in their living museum. They use their remarkable plant collections and waterfront setting to frame every exhibition, but this one feels especially dynamic.
Calder’s art has always fascinated Selby Gardens. He played with energy, motion, balance, ideas that tie in perfectly with a passion for epiphytes, or air plants. Selby Gardens isn’t just a beautiful place; it leads the world in research on air plants, orchids, and bromeliads. It’s a perfect match for Calder’s love of movement and the natural world.
This exhibition does more than showcase Calder’s abstract forms and engineering genius. It dives into his lifelong enchantment with the circus, a theme that resonates here in Sarasota, where the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus made its winter home back in 1927. Calder sketched and studied circus performers and animals as early as 1925, and you’ll see that playful, inventive spirit woven throughout the show.
“It’s an honor to present our 2026 Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition, dedicated to the pioneering work of Alexander Calder,” says Jennifer Rominiecki, President and CEO of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. “This exhibition digs into Calder’s deep connection with the natural sciences and the performing arts—especially his fascination with the circus, which is so much a part of Sarasota’s story. We’re proud to keep pushing the boundaries of what a botanical garden can be with this special presentation as The Living Museum®.”
For more information go to selby.org
