Best Arts & Culture Nonprofit in DC

We are thrilled to announce that the National Bonsai Foundation won Best Arts & Culture Nonprofit in Washington City Paper’s Best of DC Readers’ Poll 2024.

In addition to this incredible honor, The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum and the U.S. National Arboretum also racked in their fair share of wins as well. See the full list below.

And if you voted, we thank you very much for helping more people discover the beautiful art form of bonsai.

NATIONAL BONSAI FOUNDATION
Best Arts & Culture Nonprofit - Winner

THE NATIONAL BONSAI & PENJING MUSEUM

Best Place to Take an Out-Of-Towner - Winner

Best Place to Meditate - Winner

Best City Escape - Finalist

U.S. NATIONAL ARBORETUM

Best City Escape - Winner

Best Place to Go for a Walk - Runner-Up

Best Place to Meditate - Runner-Up

Best Place to Take an Out-Of-Towner - Finalist

Applications Open: National Bonsai Apprenticeship

Description

The U.S National Arboretum is offering a unique opportunity for an individual to receive advanced bonsai training at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum located in Washington DC. The purpose of this national apprenticeship program is to prepare aspiring horticulturists with the knowledge needed for a career in bonsai collection management. The successful applicant will be involved in the day-to-day care of a storied collection of historic bonsai, some of them in training for hundreds of years; and will receive one-on-one instruction from bonsai museum staff to develop skill in the styling and maintenance of bonsai.

This training opportunity is typically from March through mid-November each year. The position has a 40-hour work week of five days per week and does require weekend work. This apprenticeship is funded with a stipend by the National Bonsai Foundation*. Stipend amount can vary depending on the training period and funding.

This apprenticeship provides the applicant access to one of the largest bonsai collections in the United States, bonsai literature and scholarship, as well as access to a network of professional bonsai practitioners from around the world. Many of our past apprentices are now curating bonsai collections in private and public gardens.

Qualifications
Applicants should have an active interest in the art of bonsai and a basic understanding of plant care. While coursework is not required, candidates that demonstrate commitment to the art of bonsai are desired. Background in horticulture, life sciences, or visual art is a plus.

Duties
The bonsai apprenticeship will prepare individuals for bonsai collection management. As the applicant’s knowledge and abilities develop, and skills are learned and demonstrated, supervised work on the bonsai will be offered. These responsibilities will include seasonal bonsai care such as, repotting, pruning, wiring, de-wiring, and other maintenance as needed throughout the year. The apprentice will assist with educational programs offered to the public by helping to teach classes and bonsai demonstrations.
As an integral part of the U.S. National Arboretum, the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum serves over 700,000 visitors each year. Courteous and helpful interaction with visitors is essential. Daily tasks related to museum operations include keeping gardens and bonsai displays clean, opening and closing the museum, weeding, and watering. The applicant will frequently be requested to safely lift and move heavy, but fragile, trees around the museum. Much of the work is performed outdoors in all weather conditions,
including hot, cold, and wet.

The selected apprentice will join other U.S. National Arboretum staff and interns on field trips to public gardens in the Washington, D.C. area. The apprentice will be assigned an independent study project related to bonsai design, developed in collaboration with the Museum Curator. The results of the study project will be presented to staff of the U.S. National Arboretum and the National Bonsai Foundation.

Applications

Applications will be accepted August 12 through September 16 each year. Interviews will be scheduled thereafter with the final candidate selected by the end of October. Please email a cover letter including your personal background in bonsai and your long-term career plan to USNA.Internships@usda.gov. Describe pertinent talents and life experiences that you bring to this position. Also include your resume, references, and transcripts (unofficial are acceptable). If you have any questions, please call the National
Arboretum’s Coordinator at 202-245-4529.

Special Edition World Bonsai Day T-Shirts

The official World Bonsai Day t-shirt is available now for purchase in a variety of colors and shirt types. Grab yours!

To celebrate World Bonsai Day, the National Bonsai Foundation releases limited edition wearable items, adorned with select artwork each year. This year’s design, created by Aaron Stratten of the Potomac Bonsai Association, features a tree lovingly known as “Little Lonely Doug”, a powerful Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) styled by renowned American bonsai artist Bjorn Bjorholm. This tree made its way from the collections at Eisei-en Bonsai Garden in Nashville, TN and was donated in 2024 by Bjorn and Richard Le to the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the US National Arboretum in Washington, DC.

Vote for Us in Best of DC 2024!

In two minutes, you can help build our community.

Please vote for us and the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in the Washington City Paper's Best of DC 2024!

Help more people discover the beauty and serenity of the art of bonsai. Voting is open until June 10 at midnight (ET). For more than five years, you've kept us among the top spots in the categories below. With your vote this year, we can stay there.

Will you take a moment to vote for us in the following categories?

Best Place to Take an Out-of-Towner
Vote for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Best Place to Meditate
Vote for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Best Museum Off the Mall
Vote for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Best Arts & Culture Nonprofit
Vote for the National Bonsai Foundation

(Note that you will need to write in the nomination for each ballot.)

Please share this with your friends and family, too. We need everyone to vote for bonsai! Simply share this link:

bonsai-nbf.org/bestofdc24

NBF strives each day to uphold and promote the beauty of the Museum’s trees and viewing stones, and to promote the art of bonsai across the nation – so more people can experience the resilience and tranquility found among bonsai and penjing.

Voting closes on June 10! Thank you for taking the time to honor and promote the Museum and the National Bonsai Foundation, an ever-evolving emblem of intercultural understanding and friendship.

Photographing Bonsai with Stephen Voss: In the Fall

I laughed to myself as I began composing this first shot. I’ve been the museum for fifteen years, and seriously photographing here for nearly ten of those years. And here, in front of me, was an essentially unchanged scene that I’d never spent a moment looking at. It was too obvious, and I’ve long felt an innate resistance to making those photographs that felt “easy”. But as a photography teacher once told me, pay attention to what you’re paying attention to.

And today, those beautifully carved letters were being accented by the angular Fall light and the whole scene felt as enduring as the trees themselves. I kept the camera’s shutter open for 1/3 of a second to capture some of the blur of the foreground plant as it swayed in the cooling afternoon breeze. Its impermanence felt like a welcome balance to the stone.

In the Fall, we see those most dramatic of changes and are given the opportunity to watch as the Autumn colors spill across a tree’s canopy. Each species has its unique way of expressing its color as the leaves lose their chlorophyll. Year to year, that transition can vary based on the weather and precipitation.

I’m appreciative of the museum’s minimal design that showcase these trees in front of white, lightly textured walls, so that their texture, shape and essential nature resonate outward towards the viewer. Soon, some of these trees will be transferred to the Chinese Pavilion where they will be protected from the coldest nights of winter.

This cycle continues as it has for decades, even centuries for some trees. For now, we get to appreciate them at their most showy—resplendent in these slowing days of Autumn.

Thanks for Voting Us The Best (Again)!

We are so grateful to all of you who voted for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in this year's Washington City Paper Best of DC Reader's Poll! Thanks to you, we are proud to announce that the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum placed in 4 categories.

Best Place to Meditate
WINNER

Best Place to Take an Out of Towner
WINNER

Best Tour for Out of Towners
FINALIST

Best City Escape in the City
FINALIST

Thank you for helping us be recognized as “The Best of DC” since 2018! Because of these public honors, more people discover the beauty and serenity of the art of bonsai.

And, a big congrats to The U.S. National Arboretum who placed in 3 categories as well!

The U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition

Biannually, in September, there is a gathering in Rochester, New York, marking one of the most important events in the North American bonsai calendar. Some of the finest trees in the country will be on display as well as one of the largest concentrations of quality vendors. Highlights of the weekend include a series of lectures and demonstrations, an auction and awards banquet, the exhibition and vendor halls, a series of display critiques and much more.

The exhibition itself is massive. Around one half of the 50,000 ft2 facility is dedicated to a juried selection of over 200 displays, with areas dedicated to large and medium-sized bonsai, shohin, suiseki, kusamono, and much more. Most of the other half of the facility is distributed among the nearly 50 vendors on hand over the weekend. In addition to the display of trees from private collections, there are special exhibits from the U.S. National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, the Montreal Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and other important public and private collections across North America. It will take numerous circuits of the display area to appreciate all that is on offer.

Over the course of the weekend, a panel of noteworthy artists will lead tours through the exhibit hall, offering a detailed analysis and assessment of all that is on offer. A separate international panel of distinguished and experienced judges, including Koji Hiramatsu (Japan), Gerald Rainville (Canada), Corin Tomlinson (UK), and Sean Smith (U.S.), will carefully evaluate each of the many displays throughout the exhibit hall. Drawing on the breadth of their experience and their knowledge of bonsai aesthetics, they will distribute the National Award, as well as awards for best evergreen, best tropical, best North American native, finest classical bonsai and many more. These awards will be presented at the banquet and auction on Saturday night.

The dynamic spark of creative energy behind this exhibition is William Valavanis, an institution in American bonsai. For over half a century, Bill has been a tireless promoter and educator of bonsai in the United States. Between 1970 and 1972, he studied bonsai in Japan at the gardens of Kyuzo Murata, Kakutaro Komuro, and Tameji Nakajima. He also studied saikei with Toshio Kawamoto and ikebana at the Shofu School of Ikebana. Bill then enrolled at Cornell, majoring in Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture and began a decades-long relationship, first as a mentee and then as a collaborator, with Yuji Yoshimura in Upstate New York. Thus began Bill’s lifelong dedication to promoting bonsai and sharing his passion for the art.

Bill Valavanis (left) and Yuji Yoshimura. Photo courtesy of William Valavanis.

Establishing the U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition is just one of Bill’s many accomplishments as an author, artist and teacher. We who share Bill’s passion for the art of bonsai, owe him a debt of gratitude for his efforts to raise the standards of North American bonsai and for having provided this forum for all of us to gather and mark our collective progress.

In recognition of his many accomplishments and his lifetime of contributions, the American Bonsai Society presented Bill with a richly- deserved Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. In 2017, Bill was the third inductee to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s Bonsai Hall of Fame, following John Naka and his friend and mentor, Yuji Yoshimura.

William Valavanis in 2017 at the Hall of Fame ceremony. Photo courtesy of Young Choe.

The first U.S. National Exhibition that I attended was in 2014. Having visited a number of public and private collections as well as many state and regional conventions, I was fully aware that quality bonsai existed in America. I was, however, and continue to be, astonished at the quality and quantity of excellent bonsai developed and maintained by private collectors across the country. It is these trees that are showcased at the U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. As I walked the hall filled with stunningly beautiful trees, I was disappointed that I had missed the first three of these gatherings.

I committed right then and there to eventually showing my own trees at this event. I recall the many hours of work and planning it took to bring that about and remember my pride in seeing my own work displayed among such an excellent collection of bonsai. I now mark the event on my calendar two years in advance and am constantly asking of my best trees when they might be ready for a future U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition.

The 8th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition is scheduled for September 9-10th, 2023 in
Rochester, NY. The National Bonsai Foundation and the American Bonsai Society stand together in support of this special event. As a showcase for the best in American bonsai, this is an opportunity to measure the quality and progress of your own collection and to reimagine how far your own artistic efforts can take you. As an educational experience, this is an opportunity to engage with some of the best American artists on how you may improve the quality of your collection and, thus, contribute to the progress of bonsai in North America. As one of the largest gatherings of artists and vendors in the U.S.,
this is an opportunity to connect with a community of people having a shared and common interest.
This is an event not to be missed. I’ll be there and I am already blocking my weekends in September 2025 for the next one.

To register for the event, visit this website.

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This article was originally written by Dr. Soctt Barboza and published in the August American Bonsai Society Newsletter. Dr. Scott Barboza was introduced to bonsai by a friend while studying geology at UC Davis in the early 1990’s. Bonsai resonated with his passions for hiking, the outdoors, and gardening. He took classes in Sacramento and while in graduate school at the University of Washington. After moving to Houston in the late 1990s, Scott became a member of the Houston Bonsai Society and began studying with Boonyarat Manakitivipart with whom he has worked for many years. Scott’s trees have won awards at local, state, and regional competitions and he has exhibited trees at several national shows. He has lectured, taught, and helped to organize several conventions and exhibitions.

8th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition Comes to Rochester, NY

NBF is proud to help promote the upcoming 8th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition which will be held in East Rochester, NY September 9-10. Join people from around the world for this special event where over 200 of the finest Bonsai in the country will be on display.

The video below is a fly through of the exhibit from 2 years ago.

The U.S. National Exhibitions feature one of the largest and most diverse collections of vendors offered at any bonsai event in the nation.

In addition to over 200 museum quality bonsai, suiseki and kusamono, there will be an indoor soccer field packed full of vendors from throughout the United States. Over 40 select vendors offer visitors an extensive selection of bonsai, pre-bonsai, collected trees, containers, tools, suiseki as well as other items to add to your bonsai collection and to enhance your appreciation of the art.

Commemorative Benches - A New Opportunity

If you love the beauty and brilliance of bonsai, you will appreciate this new opportunity to support the legacy of this great art form.

We invite you to recognize a special occasion or memorialize a loved one by dedicating a commemorative bench on the grounds of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the U.S. National Arboretum. Every generous donation helps ensure that the legacy of bonsai will be protected, preserved, and passed on for future generations.

Each commemorative bench helps us care for the incredible collection of trees at the nation's first and finest bonsai museum. Your gift will be part of a historic tradition that spans continents and cultures, and it will support the art of bonsai for generations to come.

To learn more, visit bonsai-nbf.org/benches.

Vote for Us in Best of DC 2023!

In two minutes, you can help build our community.

Please vote for us and the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in the Washington City Paper's Best of DC 2023!

Help more people discover the beauty and serenity of the art of bonsai. Voting is open until midnight ET on July 10. For more than five years, you've kept us among the top spots in the categories below. With your vote this year, we can stay there.

Will you take a moment to vote for us in the following categories?

Best Place to Take an Out-of-Towner
Vote for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Best Place to Meditate
Vote for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Best Museum Off the Mall
Vote for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Best Arts & Culture Nonprofit
Vote for the National Bonsai Foundation

(Note that you will need to write in the nomination for each ballot.)

Please share this with your friends and family, too! Simply share this link: www.bonsai-nbf.org/wcp2023. We need everyone to vote for bonsai!

NBF strives each day to uphold and promote the beauty of the Museum’s trees and viewing stones – so more people can experience the resilience and tranquility found among bonsai and penjing.

Voting closes at midnight ET on July 10! Thank you for taking the time to honor and promote the Museum and the National Bonsai Foundation, an ever-evolving emblem of intercultural understanding and friendship.