The tenth annual Boxed In/Break Out is a collaboration between Savannah-based artists Lisa D. Watson and Dana Richardson. Watson is a native plant advocate with the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance and the Georgia Native Plant Society and serves as a guide for painter Richardson to explore indigenous plant habitats as inspiration for her paintings. Combining sculpture, painting, and text, the artists will transform each window into a theatrical narrative where fragile ecosystems take center stage. The scenes will invite viewers to step into an immersive experience that bridges the divide between human-made and wild spaces. Unique stories—from ancient trees in Maritime Forest to Longleaf habitats, fleeting grasslands and wildflowers, the adaptations of bog and aquatic plants —are revealed to evoke a sense of wonder and urgency and education. By casting Coastal Plains indigenous plants as both hosts and heroic performers, the installation underscores their critical role in sustaining life while highlighting the precariousness of their existence.

Guest judge Renée Maurer, associate curator at The Phillips Collection, selected Heroes and Hosts because “of the creative ways it addresses themes of biodiversity and conservation, using storytelling to highlight indigenous and vulnerable plant species in Georgia. Combining painted and sculptural elements, each window will theatrically reveal a beautiful, immersive, educational experience. The project will create moments of reflection allowing visitors to consider their relationship with nature and their role in conservation.”