Behind the Scenes with the 2026 Bulb Show Installation Artists

Through the glass panes of Lyman, as the sunlight of daybreak is just beginning to trickle in, the staff of the Botanic Garden of Smith College can be seen preparing for the annual Spring Bulb Show. The horticulturists have been zealously arranging pots of vibrant bulbs to prepare for the bulb show which will open on Saturday, Mar 7, 2026 and run through Sunday, Mar 22, 2026. The bulb show is a century-long Smith tradition, and student artists have been given the opportunity to create art installations to incorporate into the show to accentuate its natural allure for the past four years. The 2026 Spring Bulb Show Installation is centered around the theme Doing as a Way of Knowing: What materializes from an artistic process that seeks to engage and investigate the living world?

Annika Peterson ’26, Film Studies and Studio Arts major, is one of the two students awarded the opportunity to create an art installation for the bulb show. “I feel like it's so full circle,” Peterson exclaimed as the air in the botanic garden office buzzed with anticipation for the show. 

Cola Shi ‘28, Computer Science and Studio Arts major and the other student offered the installation, expressed, “I just feel really excited that I could actually work on this wonderful site and put the concept into real life,” while frantically finishing the last touches of her piece. 

Peterson took a studio art foundations course during her sophomore year where she created art based on forms found in nature. Much of the pieces in this class were inspired by living organisms in the botanic garden. 

“So when I heard the prompt, ‘Doing and making as a way of knowing,’” Peterson continued, “that immediately reminded me of these projects from class. I don't think I would have applied if I didn't have such a connection to the prompt in a way that had resonated with previous projects.”

Conversely, Shi’s connections with the bulb show trails all the way across the Pacific Ocean. 

“One of my friends was the artist for last year's bulb show.” Shi said. Ella Wang ‘28 created an installation for the 2025 Spring Bulb Show that motivated Shi to apply for this year’s installation.

“We’re from the same hometown in China, same province. It's pretty cool. And I also really loved her piece. My piece was kind of inspired by hers but with a different perspective because we have different prompts.”

Shi’s art installation will bloom with a series of interactive plant sized wooden structures intermingled with the plant display. The wooden structures will encircle plastic frames painted with thermochromatic pigments which change color through the heat of sunlight and with the touch of the bulb show attendees. As the onlookers use their senses such as sight and touch to interact with the structures, Shi hopes that they gain more awareness of how plants use their senses to react to heat and light.

“The main concept is getting into the plants’ world and feeling what plants feel by extracting certain aspects of plants [such as] heat and light since this piece responds to heat and light,” Shi explained.  

For Shi to reach a solid final product of her own, she had to go through many different iterations of installations to portray plants keenly. Her first piece involved connecting the emotions of people to plants.

“Plants can actually sense the emotion of a person. The plant’s system has some certain electronic signals so it could sense these emotional things…that was actually my first idea,” explained Shi.

Peterson’s art installation will instead ornament the ceiling of the Physiology House in Lyman with floating, partially-translucent flower structures inspired by the diverse plant species found in the botanic garden. The work will float above the actual flowers in the bulb show, reflecting the colorful bulbs below. 

“The experience I'm going for is some sort of connection being made between these sculptures and the plants that people are experiencing in barrage while they're walking through the bulb show,” Peterson explained.

“My hope is that seeing these forms enlarged and simplified will encourage people to slow down and reconsider the forms that they are accepting at face value, and think about them a little bit deeper.”

Through this piece, Peterson hopes to magnify the beauty that is hidden in the details. This proved to be an artistic challenge for her as she naturally battles perfecting every detail when she’s creating. 

Peterson shared with us that, when she came to Smith, she thought she would be an art major but found passion in English and film studies. Through this art installment, Peterson wanted to engage her creative side in a way that was different from what she’s used to in the digital world. 

“Because I'm a film major, a lot of the art classes I've been taking here are trying to develop my hard skills into the digital media route. And I wanted to return to a project that would allow me to invest back into art in a physical space… and for me the bulb show was a way of being like this is a big art project I'm doing so I feel fulfilled that I enriched myself as an artist during my time at Smith.”