[regal music]
- [Julia] People are coming to Biltmore
from all over the world, to witness the beauty
of sculpted glass exhibited
throughout the historic house and gardens.
Dale Chihuly is an internationally renowned artist,
know for his dazzling
large-scale blown glass sculptures
that fuse light and color.
Massive sculptures seem to defy gravity,
rising out of the water and earth,
capturing the imagination and fascinating
all who encounter them.
Starting inside the house, in the winter garden,
we bring you a few tantalizing highlights.
- It's spectacular to visit Biltmore right now.
We are thrilled to be hosting our first exhibition
of Chihuly at Biltmore, it is stunningly beautiful.
George Vanderbilt created Biltmore as an escape
for himself and his family and friends
to come and just enjoy the beauty
of the Blue Ridge Mountains, relax and get away.
And that's the same experience that we are replicating
today for our guests who visit Biltmore.
Chihuly created for Biltmore 16 spectacular installations
across the estate that we have been able to illuminate
for special night visits, and guests can enjoy them
during the day as well.
[light, fun music]
- Chihuly's work is so large and so colorful.
How did you incorporate it in the gardens?
- Well we chose to keep the pieces focused in this,
what we call the Pleasure Garden,
what Olmsted and Vanderbilt both called the Pleasure Garden.
So these pieces in the walled garden,
we actually started with a clean slate.
The gardeners worked very hard to get the right colors,
the right height that would work with the lighting.
And then in the rest of the gardens,
looking at the colors of that piece,
and then choosing just the right begonia
with just the right red, with actually
a little yellow stamen in the middle of it,
it echoes that color almost exactly.
In the 1890's when George Vanderbilt
and Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect,
were laying these grounds out,
it was all about the guest enjoyment
and the guest experience.
As we worked with Chihuly for the last several years,
one of the things that we struggled with,
that I personally struggled with,
was a modern art in a historic garden.
You know, will it work, did it work?
I think we got it right.
[dramatic music]
- [Julia] On special Chihuly nights,
as the sun sets, guests meander around the grounds,
[people chattering and birds chirping]
enjoying the changing light,
as the sculptures and their settings
provide a different visual nighttime experience.
- [Travis] We created the Chihuly evening experience
so guests could enjoy the backdrop
of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and visit Biltmore,
and see the Chihuly installations across the property,
and enjoy music and wine during the evening.
So it truly is a different experience
from the daytime visit, and it's just spectacular.
[dramatic music]
- Chihuly at Biltmore is on display through October 7,
and your tour is included in both
the day and evening admission tickets.
The Biltmore is at 1 Lodge Street in Asheville.
For tickets and more information go to biltmore.com/events.
And for more information about Asheville's Summer of Glass,
go to exploreasheville.com /summerofglass.