Sissinghurst, Revitalizing Vita
Friday, November 8, 2024
6:00 p.m ET lecture ⋅ 7:15 p.m. ET reception
The Explorers Club
46 E 70th St, New York, NY
Live on YouTube
Please join AFA as we welcome TROY SCOTT SMITH, Head Gardener at SISSINGHURST CASTLE, as the speaker for our 2024 annual Fall Benefit Lecture. Mr. Smith’s talk consider the past, present and future of this quintessential English country garden. Heralded for its stunning beauty and diversity of species, the garden was born out of the creative tension between the exuberant plantings by horticultural heroine Vita Sackville-West and the structured designs of her husband, Harold Nicolson.In a gorgeous presentation not to be missed, Mr. Smith promises to inspire you with the restorative spirit of this tranquil landscape, which he describes as “lavish, generous, optimistic, and romantic to the extreme.”
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About Troy Scott Smith
Mr. Smith has devoted his career to the beauty and romance of gardening, promoting a style of relaxed planting that mixes native wildings with exotics. Since joining the National Trust in 1990, Troy has led some of the world’s most beautiful gardens, including two stints at Sissinghurst, where he has guided a remarkable transformation and restoration of the Vita Sackville-West gardens since 2013. Troy has studied the distinctiveness of Sissinghurst as well as Sackville-West and Nicholson’s gardening styles, philosophy, taste, interests, and constraints.
With much gratitude to our Sponsors
| GREAT Campaign of Britain
& Northern Ireland |
The Garden Conservancy |
| Thomas Appelquist & Charles Newman | Janine Luke |
| Marianne and Michael C. Brown | David M. Maxfield |
| Robert G. Collins & E. Clothier Tepper | Susan J. Rawles |
| Nancy Smith Douglas and Walter Douglas | Stewart Rosenblum |
| Shelia ffolliott & Shepard Krech III | Charles C. Savage |
| Anne Kenny-Urban | Steven W. Spandle Architect, LLC |
| Michael Kerrigan | Beth Carver Wees & J. Dustin Wees |
| Kristin and Thomas A. Kligerman | |
| Jack Kilgore | As of September 5, updated weekly |
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Tickets | $115 or $55
Individual tickets to the presentation and reception are $115 per person. Guests age 35 and under may purchase tickets for $55.
We strongly encourage you to purchase tickets online through the button above, before prices increase in late October to $150. Alternatively, you may RSVP by email to and complete your purchase online via our website.
Virtual Tickets | $40
For those not able to join us in New York, but who would like to watch the lecture online via livestream or to have access to the recording, tickets are $40 per person. The recording will be available for a 10 days rental period, following the event. Virtual Tickets are fully tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Sponsorships
Lecture sponsors are essential to the success of AFA’s only annual fundraising event. For more information on the perks of sponsorships, including a private pre-lecture, as well as a dinner with Mr. Smith after the event and complimentary access to the recording, please contact Administrator Erin Kuykendall. Patrons who would like to sponsor our event, but are unable to attend, will have access to a fully-tax deductible contribution as a Virtual Sponsor at $1,000 (or more).
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