Festival of Trees returns to Museum of Arts and Sciences

Nothing says the holidays are here more than a nice Christmas tree, and the Museum of Arts and Sciences is delivering on that with its annual Festival of Trees fundraiser.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Nothing says the holidays are here more than a nice Christmas tree, and the Museum of Arts and Sciences is delivering on that with its annual Festival of Trees fundraiser.

“The Festival of Trees is in its 36th year and represents three generations of community involvement in the museum,” the museum’s director of communicatoins, Kyrie Hugdahl, said. “Part of the fundraiser is to do a community tree exhibition, and that’s where members of the community, organizations, schools design a tree and they come and decorate, and it stays through January.”

The exhibit is the museum’s largest fundraiser.

Applicants must fill out a form before it heads off to a review board for approval.

“We have a host committee of about a hundred women,” Hugdahl explained.  “We will ask typically people who have done it in the past, as well as kind of brain storm, or sometimes people will reach out to us, but what they’ll do is kind of give us the gist of what they’re going for , and then they’ll bring their stuff and decorate a tree.”

The exhibit is home to more than 40 unique trees all designed by local and regional groups.

Each tree is themed. For example, the Macon Mayhem has a hockey themed tree, and St. Peter Claver Catholic School Steam Lab has a Student Steam Tree. No two trees are alike, and there’s even a tree completely decorated with hand-made miniatures of the museum’s permanent exhibits.

“So it’s the Windsor Academy art teacher Beth Guest,” Hugdahl said. “Her son used to work here, and she was heavily involved, and that was just kind of like a jumping off point for him, and this place holds a very special place in her heart, so what she did is she brought her art class here (and) said pick a part of the museum that you love and kind of recreate it.”

Aside from the exhibit itself, the museum also hosts events tree-themed events starting with a champagne preview to help boost donations.

There’s also the Festival of Trees Gala, which officially opens the exhibit, as well as the Best of Macon raffle and a day out with Santa later in the year.

The Festival of Trees officially opened on November 10 and will stay on-site until January.

To learn more about the exhibit and the Museum of Arts and Sciences, check out the museum’s website here.