Ikebana
Traveling Odes 2025 at Craftspring Community Art Gallery
Ikebana is the Japanese art of arranging flowers, but at its root it's essentially a practice of paying close attention. To a single flower. A branch from the sidewalk. A handful of leaves someone else would sweep into trash.
That makes it a natural fit for Odes to Common Things. The materials are rarely precious: foraged branches, seasonal blooms, and, in one installation, a season's worth of discarded Christmas trees, rescued from the curb and rebuilt into something else entirely. The arrangements are also temporary by design: cut flowers change day to day, and most of these installations exist for a few days before the material is returned to the ground. Impermanence isn't a flaw in ikebana, it's the point.
Ikebana has been part of Tea Arts & Culture's programming since 2019, led primarily by Kristina of pine.flowers and, for larger shows, by the wider Flower Heart Alliance collective she founded: a New York–based group of ikebana artists working across schools and traditions.
Exhibitions & programs
Traveling Odes installations: BioBAT Art Space (April 2025) and CraftSpring Community Art Gallery (August 2025 and September 2026)
Summer Tea 2026 at Prospect Park (August 2026): an outdoor installation at Prospect Park Boathouse
Third Life at Winter Tea 2026 at Prospect Park (January 2026): Prospect Park Boathouse. A group exhibition under the Flower Heart Alliance name: eight ikebana artists, works both indoors and out, built from discarded Christmas trees. Free and open to the public.
Summer Tea 2026 at Prospect Park. Photos by Katie Salisbury
Summer Tea 2026 at Prospect Park. Photos by Katie Salisbury
Third Life at Winter Tea 2026 at Prospect Park. Photos by Katie Salisbury
Third Life at Winter Tea 2026 at Prospect Park. Photos by Katie Salisbury
With thanks to Flower Heart Alliance and the artists who've shown work through this program, Prospect Park Boathouse, BioBAT Art Space and CraftSpring Community Art Gallery.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
