Participating Chanticleer Artists

Bryan Christ

Bryan is Chanticleer’s Facilities Manager and a jack-of-all-trades. He started as a Groundskeeper at Chanticleer in 2003 and grew his responsibilities to include facilities in 2006, when he became the Assistant Facilities Manager. Bryan has worked on many of the large projects throughout the garden, including the Asian Woods restrooms, Visitor Services Pavilion, the Greenhouses, and the Elevated Walkway. In 2018 Br yan was promoted to his current position as Facilities Manager. Bryan holds a BA in Film from Temple University, and an AAS in Architectural Engineering from Penn State. He is Chanticleer’s resident film maker, techie, web developer, rugby player, coach, and musician.

Dan Benarcik

Dan is a longtime Horticulturist, who manages the Tennis Court Garden, Teacup Garden, and Visitor Entrance. Dan oversees the woodshop at Chanticleer and much of his winter is spent repairing and making furniture for the garden. The hum of equipment signals not only the creation of new furnishings in the garden, but the maintenance and restoration of existing pieces. Each year weather, wear and tear, and wildlife take their toll on Chanticleer staff’s handiwork. Dan assesses each piece for damage, remediates and restores the object, and works with Geoff McAfee to apply new finishes. When he is not at Chanticleer, Dan lectures and teaches workshops on chair building to other interested gardener-builders.

David Mattern

Growing up on a farm in central Pennsylvania, Horticulturist David Mattern was inspired by nature from a young age. Working in the woodshop meant evading chores on the farm. David manages the Cutting and Vegetable Gardens, which allows him to develop a garden experience within the larger context of Chanticleer. Throughout the gardening process, details are important to David. He thus enjoys creating pieces and elements that are noticed and appreciated best when you interact with it. He believes that public gardens are like art museums; they should inspire, intrigue, and invigorate. David holds a degree in Landscape Contracting with a Minor in Horticulture from Penn State University and is a graduate of the Longwood Gardens Professional Horticulture program.

Dennis Matthews

(April13,1947 – September12,2021)

Following retirement from a long career as an educator of both children and adults, Dennis Matthews joined Chanticleer as a Visitor Services staff member and woodshop volunteer from 2013 to 2020. Dennis brought a clever, patient approach to his work in the woodshop, repairing furniture, working on new designs, and refining existing designs to be better for the end user. Dennis’s creativity, spirit, and wit live on in his Chanticleer projects.

Doug Croft

Doug was born and raised in Virginia and studied Finance and Horticulture at Virginia Tech. He interned in Horticulture at the Morris Arboretum and worked at Haverford College Arboretum for three years before joining Chanticleer as a Horticulturist from 2000 to 2018. During his time at Chanticleer, he managed the Cutting and Vegetable Gardens, the Rock Wall, and Long Border, and he created ceramic vases that could be used to display floral arrangements in the garden. Doug was pleased to find a way to utilize his interest in clay to create functional vessels and add to the artistry found throughout the garden. Doug currently gardens in Virginia working on a private estate.

Douglas Randolph

Douglas joined the Chanticleer team in 1991 as one of the first Horticulturists hired after founder Adolph Rosengarten, Jr. died. Douglas was hired to help build a great garden but felt underemployed in winter. He suggested purchasing woodworking equipment to create furniture for the garden during the cold season. His first project was a glider (swinging bench) for the Tennis Court Garden. In 1997 he transitioned to solely working as a craftsman and went on to construct some of Chanticleer’s finest furniture. Douglas left Chanticleer in 2012 to focus on organic and regenerative farming in Cochranville, Pennsylvania.

Chris Fehlhaber uses the dried fruiting body of Ostrich fern as a subtle detail marking where tender bulb foliage is starting to emerge.

Chris Fehlhaber

Assistant Horticulturist Chris Fehlhaber takes pleasure in documenting the ever-changing garden through the seasons through photography and assisting with stonework in the cooler months. He delights in unexpected, capturing photos and videos on his iPhone to not miss the garden’s constant growth and evolution. A gardener at heart, he grew up in his mother and grandmother’s gardens in southeastern Wisconsin. He has developed his skills through practical hands-on experience working with designers, plants people, farmers, and gardeners. Following graduation from the University of Wisconsin and work at a nursery, Chris was drawn to Chanticleer as a garden for the sake of being a garden; one that allows its staff to engage in the practice and joy of gardening.

Ed Hincken

Ed was the Facilities Manager at Chanticleer from 1998 to 2018. In that role he contributed creatively to the planning and design of many garden features, including the Visitor Services Pavilion at the garden’s front entrance, the Asian Woods restrooms, the Greenhouses, and the Fallen Tree Bridge in Bell’s Woodland. He is skilled in decorative painting and faux finishes and during his time at Chanticleer was responsible for the finishes on all furniture, plant list boxes, and buildings. Ed retired in 2018 and now enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends.

Geoff McAfee

Geoff hails from Belfast, Northern Ireland, moved to the US 33 years ago, and in 1998 began his own painting business specializing in restoring old homes. Geoff has been a painting contractor for Chanticleer for 16 years. As part of his work with Chanticleer, he has assisted staff in the final steps of finish work on furniture and objects made for the garden. Each winter, Geoff is part of the team that assesses each piece for sound design and aesthetic repair. After the repairs are made, Geoff stains, seals, or paints each item. Over the years he has experimented with different products to protect wood from the elements and to ensure they are functional, safe, and attractive. Geoff likes the challenge of working with decadesold pieces that are well-used outside and bringing them back to their full potential as well as working with the various creatives at Chanticleer and helping bring their new ideas to life.

Joe Henderson

Joe is an artist and Horticulturist at Chanticleer, interested in many aspects of craft In the 1980s, he apprenticed as a jeweler, giving him an appreciation for finer detail in fabrication and a jewel box approach to inspiration. Joe has created many unique pieces for the garden and strives to make singular work with interesting joinery, composition, and design like the gardens these pieces inhabit. Joe feels gardening is an art form that develops with time and never quite finished. He studied Ornamental Horticulture at the University of Delaware and worked as the Greening Program Assistant at the Delaware Center for Horticulture before joining Chanticleer’s team in 1997.

Katharine Startup Barrie

Katharine is an Assistant Horticulturist who delights in creating practical and pleasing structures for the garden. Nurturing her childhood passion for arts and crafts, her father taught her how to draft, weld, and finish metalwork projects after school and over the summer in his workshop in Pound Ridge, New York. Through travel and working with farmers, horticulturists, and landscape designers, she was inspired to pursue a career as a gardener and trained at the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture. Seeing the opportunity to combine her love of design and plants, Katharine was drawn to Chanticleer and continues to take great pleasure in enhancing the garden’s beauty year-round.

Laurel Voran

Laurel began in 1999 as a Horticulturist at Chanticleer. Laurel studied Natural Sciences and Fine Art at Goshen College, with an emphasis on graphic design and printmaking. Laurel then completed the two-year Longwood Gardens Professional Horticulture Program followed by a six-month internship working in English gardens. At Chanticleer, she created and managed the Gravel and Ruin Gardens. Laurel put her drawing skills to work by painting the interior of the Apple House at Chanticleer, carving the Minder Woods Plant List Box, and helping construct the Gravel Garden Plant List Box in this show. Laurel currently works on public and private gardens in Michigan.

Lisa Roper

Horticulturist Lisa Roper has gardened for the past 33 years in various areas of Chanticleer. She now oversees the Gravel and Ruin Gardens and is grateful to have the opportunity to express herself creatively as a gardener, photographer, and occasionally woodworker at Chanticleer. Lisa has a BFA from The Cooper Union, where she studied photography. While harvesting olives in Jerusalem, Lisa’s interest in horticulture was ignited, so to enhance her knowledge of gardening she completed the two-year Professional Horticulture Program with Longwood Gardens.

Przemek Walczak

Przemek joined Chanticleer in 1996 as a Horticulturist. In addition to gardening, Przemek finds inspiration from nature for his garden art, typically expressed in metal, wood, and stone. His projects transform bridges, fences, pathways, walls, and railings from utilitarian necessities to artistic expressions complementing their setting. He teaches classes on gardening with native plants, spring wildflowers and ephemerals, moss gardening, aquatic gardening, and woodland and shade gardening. Przemek graduated from Academy of Life Sciences in Warsaw, Poland with a Master of Economics and Agriculture.