Opening: 5000 Flowers September 3, 2010

Las Cruces, NM – The 9th annual “5000 Flowers” exhibit sponsored by the GFWC Progress Club commemorates the tragic events of 9/11. This year’s exhibit will be displayed in a dramatic new format. Small wooden blocks painted with ten flowers each will be placed on the first of two wooden towers representing the World Trade Center. Over 100 artists from New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Vermont, and New York have provided 2,500 flowers and three poems needed to complete the first tower. The second tower will be completed in 2011. The exhibit will also feature photos of memorials at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, VA, the USS New York, and the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero. The show opens during the “First Friday Ramble” at Branigan Cultural Center on Friday, September 3, 2010 from 5 to 7 pm. There will be another community reception on September 11 from 10 am to noon. The exhibit continues through Saturday, September 25th.

The concept of a "5,000 Flowers" exhibit began with Carol Adamec and Sondra Diepen, two New Mexico artists, in 2002. The artists chose flowers as the theme because of their universal appeal. The number 5,000 was chosen to include all those persons accounted for on official lists and those not accounted for on any list. An invitation was extended across the state and across the nation for every community to sponsor their own "5,000 Flowers" project. Las Cruces, NM, has been the only community to continue this exhibit each year since 2002.

The Branigan Cultural Center, 501 N. Main Street, is located at the north end of the Downtown Mall in Las Cruces. The exhibits and events are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, contact the Branigan Cultural Center at (575) 541-2154 or visit the Center’s web site at las-cruces.org/museums.