Staff report
The Friends of the Boone County Arboretum have named Lindsey Kiser their first Artist-in-Residence
The Boone County Arboretum launched the artist-in-residence program in May during its 25th anniversary celebration, and Kiser is the first person appointed to the volunteer role.
Through this program, the Arboretum Board of Directors seeks to provide community members with a platform to actively engage with both the artistic process and nature, fostering a deeper connection and appreciation for the study of plants and the protection of the natural environment.
“It is fitting that Lindsey is the first artist-in-residence, as she painted the cover of our map when the arboretum opened in 1999,” said Kris Stone, director of the Boone County Arboretum. “I look forward to reading Lindsey’s article about what inspires her artistic work at the arboretum next year. I hope the nonprofit’s new artist-in-residence program will increase awareness of our unique arboretum.”
The 121-acre Boone County Arboretum, also known as Central Park, was the nation’s first arboretum located within an active recreational park. The arboretum is accredited by the Arbnet Accreditation Program at Level IV – the highest level – a recognition given to only forty arboretums in the world.
As part of her research and development work, Kiser plans to study the arboretum’s plantings to create new work on native plants and pollinators. She said the biological function of “cross-pollination” by pollinators metaphorically represents the dynamic interplay of different concepts.
“This concept fosters a garden of intellectual exploration and innovation and aligns with my interest in enriching dialogues that cross borders,” she said. “As a former patent attorney who now works full-time as a visual artist, I am passionate about issues that stimulate community-wide conversations about ideation and innovation, the environment and agriculture, education and the arts.”
Kiser is a graduate of Larry A. Ryle High School and earned her bachelor’s degree in art with minors in biology and chemistry from Georgetown College. She also studied art history and drawing at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Kiser then earned her Juris Doctor from the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University.
To follow Kiser’s work or to obtain fine art prints of her original oil painting of the Arboretum, made in honor of the 25th anniversary, subscribe to her mailing list and visit lindseykiser.com.
