URBAN LANDSCAPES IGNITE NEW YORK'S CULTURAL SCENE (c) By Polly Guerin

Landscapes and gardens are still on the agenda in cultural venues that brighten the outlook that spring is the best time of the year to visit museum and nearby gardens. It’s the best of New York my dears, right here waiting for your visit. Here’s the scoop!!!

THE NEW YORK CHINESE SCHOLAR’S GARDEN: This oasis of incredible silence offers another serene venue for meditation. Its presentation reflects on our understanding of life in ancient China. The Garden’s design, based on the Suzhou Couple’s Retreat Garden built in the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty features unique rockery that resemble mountains that used to inspire poetry and paintings of Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist monks and scholars. Now it is your turn to explore the eight pavilions--just walk the bamboo path, take time to gaze at waterfalls and visit a Koi-filled pond. As you come upon the Chinese calligraphy and a variety of Ghongshi scholar’s rocks you will be amazed by the fifteen-foot tall formation that towers over the central courtyard. It was designed by Zou Gongwu and is one of the two authentic scholar’s gardens in the United States. A team of 40 Chinese arts and craftsmen spend a year in China creating the Garden’s components and then another six months on Staten Island as craftsmen in residence at Sung Harbor to complete the construction. Open 10 am-5pm. Closed Mondays. You simply take the Staten Island ferry, a short bus ride, walk a little and presto you arrive in a magnificent Chinese garden right next door to New York City.

URBAN LANDSCAPES The Paris-born author of the Last Garden of Versailles: Marie-Antoinette at Trianon (Rizzoli 2008) Christian Duvernois open a gallery at 648 Broadway, Suite 804. Duvernois is an expert on classical European landscape design and regularly lecture on the subject. Yet, he is equally rooted in the present, seeking to incorporate contemporary art into the high-end residential projects—many of them an oasis in the sky on Manhattan rooftops. His new gallery showcases contemporary art related to landscape and the environment, as well as limited-edition garden sculptures. Come May, the space will be turned over to the abstracted landscapes of the Paris-born, New York-based artist Vicky Colombet. The Christian Duvernois Gallery: Tel: 212.268.3628.

RENE LALIQUE; Enchanted by Glass at The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG), Corning, N.Y. is another chance to escape from the city. Indulge yourself and discover how Lalique designed decorative glass for every part of the home, his early success in the French perfume industry and how he introduced decorative glass in architecture, luxury trains and cruise ships and established a legacy of excellence and innovation in luxury glass production. The exhibition which opens May 17th, traces Lalique’s transition from jeweler to industrialist, including his leading role in creation of bijouterie (the incorporation of semi-precious stones with non-traditional materials like glass, enamel, horn, and bone). His triumphant display at the 1925 Paris Exposition had a marked influence on the Art Deco movement. CMoG is located in the heart of the Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State. More info: cmog.org

A DIALOGUE WITH NATURE: The Morgan Library and Museum collaborates with London’s Courtauld Gallery to explore the beauty and innovation of British and German Romantic landscape drawings that again engage our attention with the works of artists such as J.M.W. Turner, Samuel Palmer, Caspar David Friedrich and Karl Friedrich Lessing. The exhibition traces the unfolding of this new Romantic sensibility with a selection of drawings, watercolors, and oil sketches chosen from the renowned collection of the Morgan Library & Museum. It is relatively rare to see British and German drawings side by side but it gives us a chance to take a fresh look as the artists’ “dialogue with nature.” A Gallery Talk: A Dialogue with Nature; Romantic Landscapes takes place June 13 at 6:30 pm. At the Morgan Library and Museum 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street. 212.685.0008.

Ta Ta Darlings!!! Pollytalk is crossing over the pond to visit The Scholars Garden in Staten Island, you should, too! Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon. Visit Polly’s website pollytalk and in the left hand column click on my other Blogs on fashion, visionary men and hidden treasures in New York.