When Jamie Marigold Biagiarelli, AC ‘26J, was in her first year at Smith, she wanted to submit a proposal for the installation bid for the annual Spring Bulb Show at the botanic garden, but being a new student, had no peers with whom she could submit a group proposal. Disappointed, she stored the thought away in the back of her mind, until this fall, when the call was once again put out for installation proposals—this time, individual proposals were being accepted.

“I wanted it so bad, I was like, ‘I’m not gonna get it, I want it too bad,’” Biagiarelli said. “And I also hesitated because I felt like I didn’t really have any super original ideas, my original sketches were very much inspired by other artists who do installation sculptures.”

Despite her uncertainty, Biagiarelli ended up being selected as one of two installation artists to create pieces for the 2025 iteration of the bulb show, along with first-year student Ella Wang ’28. The prompt she was given was to respond to “the legacy of here, now,” in response to an the SCMA exhibition Younes Rahmoun: Here, Now hosted at multiple sites, including the botanic garden, through July of 2025. The exhibition is a 25-year retrospective of one of Morocco’s leading contemporary artists.

“I could have taken the prompt in so many different directions,” Biagiarelli said. “When I came in to present to the committee, I knew the look of the material that I wanted, but I had no clue what I was going to use.”

Biagiarelli was ultimately struck with inspiration during a visit to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA) after seeing the work of an artist who used a plastic material, DuraLar, on which to paint. With the final part of the equation, Biagiarelli could start constructing her installation titled Gathering.

“The arrangement of the colors is my abstract imagined version of the way that plants see light,” Biagiarelli said. “There’s more red at one end and then less at the other end.”

The installation consists of small rectangular Duralar panels, painted over in vibrant colors using oil paint with Gamsol and walnut alkyd mixed into the solution, and hung from a grid in the show house. Towards one end, there is a higher concentration of reds and oranges, whereas the other end has more blue hues, representing how the chlorophyll in plants absorb light on the visible light spectrum.

Aside from the pride and joy that comes with creating a piece of art, Biagiarelli feels a personal connection to the installation piece she created for this year’s bulb show.

“I grew up in the area, so I have memories as far back as I can remember of coming to the greenhouses with my parents,” Biagiarelli said. “I feel like a special responsibility, in a way, to do a good job for the bulb show, because I know how big of a deal it is for people outside of the Smith community too.”

Unlike Biagiarelli, Congyue (Ella) Wang ’28 had no previous experience with the bulb show. Even when she applied to create one of the Spring Bulb Show installation pieces, Wang says she didn’t fully understand  what she was getting into until she told her house’s Head of New Students, who informed her of how popular the event is to the Smith and Western Massachusetts community.

“I remember during J-term we had a meeting. Greenhouse Horticulturist Lily Carone came and she was like, ‘This year is the 150th anniversary of Smith, and the 130th year anniversary of the botanic garden!’ And I was like, ‘No…me?’” said Wang.

The whole experience was unfamiliar to Wang. In addition to being a first-year Smith student and a newcomer to the botanic garden, this was also her first installation art piece. There was a large learning curve that Wang had to work hard to overcome.

“In the past, I've only done calligraphy, water coloring, oil painting, or just drawing digital art–it’s more about considering the colors,” Wang said. “But installation is more of a physical kind of planning, and mental [planning], because you have to try it and then change it. So that's two things that I'd never really imagined before.”

As with anything so new, the process of putting together the installation could be stressful at times for Wang. She said in times of intense emotion, she appreciated the space that she was working in all the more.

“Working in the botanic garden is heaven,” Wang said. “The project was a little bit stressful for me, but every time when I walked into [the garden], oh my god, the room with the sun and the smell–I really like the natural smell–and the bulbs… it was really magical.”

Wang also feels grateful for the people she was surrounded by while she worked on the project, who provided her with reassurance when needed.

“Lily was so supportive, she knew that I was a little stressed, and she was like, ‘In the worst circumstances, you don't have to do it and it's okay.’ I was like, ‘No, I can't. It's the 150th anniversary! There's no way.’ So that was really funny,” Wang said.

Looking back, Wang says that the source of inspiration for her response to ‘the legacy of here, now,’ happened by chance, based on a scene she happened to witness one day during fall semester after class.

“It was green grass, blue skies, that kind of time. After my class, when I was walking through Chapin Lawn, I could see a lot of people wearing different colors of clothes, and all walking from different places, but gathering at one point. Then they just sat down there to chat a little and have lunch together,” Wang said. “So if you trace their trajectory of walking together, it's kind of similar to what I did with the threads and the beads. That's kind of where I got my first inspiration.”

Later, as she was developing her concept for the installation, titled Echo, Wang also drew inspiration from memories from her childhood and a saying her mother used to tell her.

“I changed schools a lot during my education, between the States, my hometown, and then Beijing. So there were so many places that I had to make decisions, there were always these big choices,” Wang said. “There was a period of time where I really regretted going back to China, because I felt like if I stayed in the States, I might have a better high school [experience]. So my mom always says, ‘But you're happy right now. If you made another choice in the past, it will not lead you to the [version of] yourself that you're happy with right now.’ She's like, ‘There's nothing to regret, every little choice that you made took you here.’ So that's kind of what I also wanted to say.”

Wang hopes that along with all of these feelings, most of all, joy will be what comes through for people observing her art.

“I just want them to feel like, ‘Wow, it's beautiful,’ and then, ‘it's great to see this today,’ and then, ‘it's working well with the bulbs,’” Wang said. “I want to make people happier when they see it, before they have any deeper philosophical meanings. That's the first feeling that I want people to take away from this.”

Learn more about the student artists and the 2025 Art Installation. The bulb show will be on display at Lyman Plant House at the Botanic Garden of Smith College through Sunday, March 16, 2025, 10am - 4pm daily. There are members-only hours from 9 - 10 am daily, and extended hours on Fridays and Saturdays until 8pm.