President’s Message

Years ago, I took a lovely walk with one of Atlanta’s community leaders, a very thoughtful and strategic thinker who loves this city dearly. As we stood on the Canopy Walk admiring the new Gardens in Storza Woods, he said something that would forever change the Garden’s future. His simple statement was, “If there were ever a time to expand the Garden and Piedmont Park, it is now – before it’s too late.” We were looking north, the only direction that might offer expansion opportunities. That statement stayed with me for weeks, and I finally began looking at Google maps to see where such a vision might occur.

Now, almost seven years later, that idea is about to become a reality. And while a Garden expansion is a worthy dream, it’s what comes with it – a new door on the Atlanta Beltline – that truly makes this expansion so compelling (see pages 8-11). Imagine our city in the future with a 22-mile continuous loop for walking and biking. It will be a recreational corridor as well as a means to move through the city without a car, with millions of people connected to the city and its neighborhoods using their own energy. This transformational expansion will enable the Garden to welcome members and guests in the most sustainable way imaginable.

As with any visionary and challenging project, there are many “heroes” who have worked with us to move forward. Three mayors, multiple city council members, board members and thoughtful community leaders have quietly helped us propel this expansion. There truly are too many to name, but they will forever be the visionary founders of the Garden’s expansion.

The James M. Cox Foundation was the first to embrace the vision, providing a tremendous lead gift of $25 million to launch the land acquisition campaign. The foundation shares our vision for a new sustainable entrance for the Garden and creating a cultural destination on the Beltline. We are eternally grateful to the foundation and its board. And we treasure our former Lifetime Trustee, Anne Cox Chambers, whom we lost in 2020.

Carol Tomé, former chair of the Garden’s Board of Trustees, also joined us early in this acquisition campaign by agreeing to serve as its chair and providing a generous gift of $5 million to launch us forward. UPS, Atlanta’s hometown company, followed with a matching gift of $5 million to assure that the expansion would be successful. UPS is truly a visionary company that shares the Garden’s commitment to sustainability and a healthy planet.

We have a long way to go, but landscape designs are under way as we strive to create a garden addition on a grand scale that showcases floral displays, horticultural treasures and the integration of water and art. Our design is bold, reflecting inspiration from timeless European gardens while showcasing a contemporary Atlanta garden.

Mayor Andre Dickens has challenged us to open the addition in time for the World Cup to be held in Atlanta in July 2026. That’s a formidable challenge but one that we will strive to achieve. As Atlanta steps into the international limelight, so, too, will the new Atlanta Botanical Garden.

At first glance, they look a bit ominous, just from their sheer size. On closer look, their faces exhibit compassion, concern and ingenuity.

The six massive young trolls hanging out in the Garden are on a mission to protect its guests from old grumpy trolls who have had it with the human race. The young activists – represented by sculptures made of all reclaimed materials – are “in a fight with humanity about how to behave in the natural world. The old trolls in my stories want to eat the humans because the humans are messing up the world,” the trolls’ creator, artist and storyteller Thomas Dambo, said in a recent interview.

But in his current exhibition Trolls: Save the Humans the young guys and girls are determined to instead teach folks a lesson: That it is time to wake up and save the planet – before it’s too late.

The traveling folklore-inspired sculptures, some up to 15 feet tall and 25 feet wide, are making their world premiere at the Garden through September 17 in an exhibition delighting guests of all ages. The whimsical trolls highlight Dambo’s passion as a recycling art activist whose mission is to inspire people to explore and create new adventures in nature while demonstrating that trash can be turned into something beautiful and unique.

In this new exhibit the Danish artist tells an evolving story of listening and tending to nature, further building on the Nordicinspired tales and artist-made poems surrounding his many other larger-than-life trolls that co-exist in locations around the world.

Presented by Imagine Exhibitions in collaboration with the artist, Trolls: Save the Humans is the latest chapter in a worldwide sculpture fairytale written by Dambo. In this case, the six young trolls have noticed that humans are disconnected from nature and have started harming the planet. The trolls set out to help humans learn how to live in harmony with the planet. Full of personality and activism, each troll has a name and plays a distinctive role in the tribe, becoming role models for humans to learn from.

Born in Denmark to hippie parents, Dambo’s mission is to create art that inspires people to explore, have adventures in nature and show that recycled goods can be turned into something beautiful. Before building sculptures, the artist, 43, led a multi-faceted life that allowed him to express his creativity via music, street art and scenic design.

Dambo began creating wooden trolls about 10 years ago, and as word of his unusual work spread, he was invited to travel and create installations around the world, which now number about 100.

For the Garden’s exhibit, he and his crew of about 21 gathered the reclaimed materials in Denmark, where they built the trolls, then broke them down for shipping and reassembling in Atlanta.

“I hope that people will learn something about nature and sustainability,” Dambo told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “When I was a child I looked at a dumpster and saw a beautiful thing that I could use to change the world. The world is limited, and if we keep changing the world into a big landfill then we will run out of room, and we will all just live in a big landfill.”

Trolls: Save the Humans by Thomas Dambo is presented with support from the Isdell Family Foundation.

MEET ARTIST THOMAS DAMBO during a free Alston Lecture on “Trash, Trolls and Treasure Hunts” at the Garden on Tuesday, June 13 at 7 p.m. A book signing follows. Dambo’s journey is a real-life fairytale about how he roamed his home city of Copenhagen on a cargo bike for dumpster diving materials