CollectionSpace Community, Please join me in welcoming Joe Byrd of the GSBF Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt and Kathy McCabe and Aarin Packard of the Pacific Bonsai Museum to our community. These two collections have been awarded a CollectionSpace collaborative mini-grant to work together to design and develop a bonsai extension to the CollectionSpace botanical garden profile, which will then be used by both institutions and shared with the larger bonsai community. The gardens will also use grant funds to create a tool that will allow them to publish online the history of their bonsai development, which will provide lessons on bonsai care to bonsai enthusiasts around the world. The GSBF Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt<http://gsbf-lakemerritt.org/> is the home to some of the finest Bonsai in the country. The BGLM, located at Oakland's Lakeside Park, is the only major all-volunteer bonsai garden in the country and houses some of the most important bonsai in the US. Docents can point out the historic Daimyo oak tree that was presented by the newly opened Japanese government to the US Ambassador to China in the 1860s during Abraham Lincoln's presidency. Nearly 100 bonsai are on display at any given time with another 100 in reserve. The Pacific Bonsai Museum<http://pacificbonsaimuseum.org/> connects people to nature through the living art of bonsai. A grand outdoor setting with the elegance of a fine museum, the Museum boasts over 100 bonsai and the most diverse public collection in North America with trees from Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United States. Free of charge and open to the public six days a week, this cultural gem offers contemporary and traditional exhibitions, group tours, and education. The program team is excited to see this novel application of CollectionSpace, and we look forward to a long and fruitful (no pun intended) partnership. Best regards, Megan Megan Forbes CollectionSpace Program Manager megan.forbes@lyrasis.org 917.267.9676 Cell meganbforbes Skype