Meet the Selection Committee
Ross Ferguson ONZM
Ross Ferguson is a retired scientist who worked on kiwifruit. His research was mainly on the biology of the genus Actinidia, kiwifruit history and kiwifruit breeding. Since retirement he has written a number of papers on horticultural history including the first European illustrations of New Zealand plants. He has a collection of about 40 historic botanical prints and works by current botanical artists.
Ross was on the selection committee for the inaugural Botanical Art Worldwide exhibition in 2018 and is delighted to be part of the selection process again.
Read more about Ross here
Sri Kartawiadi Benham
Indonesian born Sri studied interior and garden design in Belgium, and worked as draughtsman for a landscaping company. She moved to the UK upon marrying in mid-80s and it is whilst there which inspired her botanical painting career.
Residing in NZ since the early 90s, Sri was asked to tutor the initial botanical painting workshop for the Friends of the Auckland Botanic Gardens. This was subsequently followed by regular botanical painting classes for the members of the Friends of the Auckland Botanic Gardens, from which she has now retired.
Sri was also on the selection committee for the inaugural Botanical Art Worldwide exhibition in 2018 and is delighted to be part of the selection process again.
Barbara Wheeler
Barbara has been in public garden horticulture for 33 years, starting at Dunedin Botanic Garden as a horticultural apprentice. Post apprenticeship Barbara had a stint as a gardener working in high profile central city reserves, before heading to Longwood Gardens, USA to do their 1-year International Gardener Program.
Returning to NZ, Barbara worked as a gardener and then as a Parks Officer for the Dunedin City Council, in an audit role for Parks & Reserves Department. Next up was a 2-year Diploma in Horticulture at the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship garden, Wisley, England, and after returning to NZ briefly Barbara took up the role of Gardener at the residence of the Australian Governor-General, Admiralty House, in Sydney.
Next in the career journey was a 1-year maternity cover position, as Collection Curator of the Rock, Water & Alpine collections at Dunedin Botanic Garden. She was then promoted to the role of Collections Supervisor at Dunedin Botanic Garden where she led the team of collection curator’s and operational management for 19 years.
In 2019, Barbara took a sabbatical and once again headed offshore and completed the 13-month leadership development program at Longwood Gardens, USA. After a year at Dunedin Botanic Garden Barbara moved to Auckland to take on the role of Curator at Auckland Botanic Gardens.
Barbara was delighted to be asked to join Ross and Sri on the selection committee.