"Gardens are the slowest of the performing arts..."
“Gardens are the slowest of the performing arts,” wrote landscape historian Mac Griswold. Every season, gardeners in Gardens Buffalo Niagara (GBN) events prove this true. Gardens emerge as living stages, blending art, history, and culture in ways that uplift entire neighborhoods.
This summer, the East Side Garden Walk, Garden Walk Buffalo, Open Gardens, and more once again showcased the incredible creativity, pride, and generosity that define its neighborhoods. Tens of thousands wandered through blooming gardens, shared stories with neighbors, and witnessed firsthand what we cultivate when we come together. Read the 2025 Impact Report to see what’s possible when neighbors come together.
Your support brings these gardens to life as public art, blending horticulture with visual and performing arts, architecture, and cultural storytelling.
Take the East Side Garden Walk, which celebrates creativity and community pride. Many gardens feature handmade art, storytelling, and intergenerational traditions, transforming front yards and vacant lots into cultural spaces. On Mercer Street, there’s a garden that is a living tribute to jazz. Gardens allow residents to express identity and celebrate heritage, turning their blocks into outdoor galleries of Black creativity and culture. Then there are the gardeners on Garden Walk Buffalo, who have been transforming the city into an open-air living gallery for decades. Many gardeners display found-object art, sculptures, and murals.
Three years ago, GBN partnered with a local curator and Open Gardens gardener, Shirley Verrico, to launch Artists in Gardens. The program featured dozens of artists in gardens across the region. Musicians played sitar, fiber artists knitted, and painters captured gardens in real time. This program now runs through all of GBN’s events, uniting neighborhoods and audiences through accessible, outdoor arts experiences. It’s your creativity and generosity that make new initiatives possible.
Your support connects gardens and the arts even further.
With partners like the Buffalo AKG Art Museum on the East Side and the Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters and Buffalo Society of Artists on the West and East Sides, GBN has brought live art-making sessions to front yards and community spaces. These partnerships enrich Buffalo’s cultural landscape and provide platforms for artists across disciplines.
As autumn settles in, GBN turns to you—its visitors, neighbors, gardeners, and backyard curators—to ensure that the seeds planted continue to flourish through every season.
As GBN looks toward the 2026 season, your financial support is more vital than ever to ensure GBN’s ongoing mission to nurture the region’s gardening culture and make it more accessible to all gardeners, garden lovers, and visitors to our beautiful area by:
Double the grants through the Lunenfeld Beautification Grants, given to community groups throughout the city, named after Garden Walk Buffalo founder Marvin Lunenfeld.
Introduce new events to connect even more neighbors
Take a look at GBN’s 2025 Impact Report!
Your gift will continue to support all of GBN’s beloved summertime events:
Conservation Day and Butterfly Release at the Elmwood Village Farmers Market
The Garden Art Sale in partnership with the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens
Tours of Open Gardens in July
Your gift today—whether it’s $35, $50, $500, or any amount that feels right—directly supports all events and programs.
Your generosity helps every garden become a stage and every gardener a backyard curator. Together, we’re creating a living performance of color, creativity, and community.