through August 2024
East and West Galleries, South Transition, Kitchen Garden, Terrace Gardens

Agriculture impacts everyone’s daily life and not just because of the food we eat. Explore the galleries and gardens to learn how inventive ideas in agriculture, both scientific and social, sustain and enrich life and how growing and cooking food connects people with each other and communities. Agriculture, the science and technique of growing crops and livestock, depends on innovating how plants grow. Generations of people selected plants for useful traits and developed methods to manage soil nutrients and water. Agricultural innovation and knowledge sharing continue today in laboratories, on farms, and at botanic gardens like this one.

See dozens of colorful varieties of corn and learn about the wild relatives of modern plants we eat, go hands-on to explore the science of agriculture through microscopes and hand lenses, dive into the many different peoples that have farmed the land through the centuries, and enjoy the smells of the plants that connect several local chefs with their food cultures as they share their stories in their own words. Continue your exploration through vibrant interactives showing how plants impact beloved recipes from around the world, see innovative home gardening through hydroponics and kitchen garden techniques, and test your knowledge of popular foods through fascinating world maps created from grains and legumes.

Visitors walk through exhibits featuring varieties of corn A visitor reads a map of grains of the world in Cultivate agriculture exhibit Visitors look into microscopes A visitor reads about plants that changed the world A visitor looks at a table showing grains of the world A woman lifts a weighted plate Visitors smell foods in a cooking display of Cultivate exhibit Two kids investigate recipe ingredients from plants