By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer When the weather outside is frightful, warming up indoors, surrounded by plants, food, art and live music, is so delightful. Flora & Fromage creative director Coco Bustin, left, and event manager Candy Green pose with a floral installation. The event, which will be held Jan. 25 in Holyoke, will showcase the designs of local floral artists and provide guests with an opportunity for “reconnecting with nature, especially during a time when it can feel inaccessible,” Bustin said. Cheese from Provisions will also be featured. PHOTO BY DAN LITTLE Such is the idea behind Flora & Fromage, an upcoming plant-themed art and food experience at Mill 1 in Holyoke on Saturday, Jan. 25, from 7 to 11 p.m. The inaugural event will feature botanical art installations and sculptures, a live band, a DJ, cheese and charcuterie (both as art and as food), a botanical bar with cocktails and mocktails, an art market and performance artists. Flora & Fromage creative director Coco Bustin, an event planner and floral designer who lives in Northampton, said she was inspired to put the event together because her moods often shift in periods of colder weather, sometimes to the point of seasonal depression, and she decided to stay in western Mass this winter rather than travel like she normally does. She has a longstanding love of flowers, largely inspired by her uncle in Belgium, who co-owns a flower shop with Bustin’s aunt and also works as an artist. With that, she wanted to answer the question: “How can I bring the things that uplift my mood into a curated experience?” At the heart of Flora & Fromage, in any case, is “a love for cheese and for bringing people together and making beautiful structures with food and plants.” “The main focus is reconnecting with nature, especially during a time when it can feel inaccessible,” Bustin said. “We aim to explore ways to manipulate our surroundings to positively affect our moods. It’s a social experiment, exhibition, and networking opportunity all in one. Think of it as an escape from the cold.” The inaugural Flora & Fromage event will feature botanical art installations and sculptures, a live band, a DJ, cheese and charcuterie (both as art and as food), a botanical bar with cocktails and mocktails, an art market and performance artists. PHOTO BY DAN LITTLE If the idea of a local “curated food experience” sounds familiar, it might be that you recognize another of Bustin’s events, Food & Form, which the Gazette wrote about in August. The focus of that event was different — namely, its chief attraction was nyotaimori, a Japanese practice that involves eating food off naked bodies — but both Food & Form and Flora & Fromage aim to celebrate unique art forms. Even so, Bustin wants guests to contribute to the art with their own outfits: the dress code encourages attendees to “strive for creative elegance,” with “extra points if you dress as your favorite flower!” Floral artist Tricia Herring, who shares a studio space with Bustin in Holyoke, will be contributing floral pieces and installations that aim to give guests “a way to view flowers in a way that you don’t normally see presented” – for example, flowers encased in ice. She’s looking forward to the event overall because “people in New England need to see life and greenery just to break up the dread of winter.” Ivy Ross, an artist who also works with plants and natural materials, will be bringing chandeliers inspired by different plants’ leaf structures, plus fresh flowers that she’ll integrate into steel structures. She, too, is inspired by the opportunity to give guests a new way to see the natural world, especially in a time of year in which daylight isn’t plentiful; an event like this, she said, is good for “commemorating the sunshine that will come again.” She hopes that guests will “be able to connect with the natural world [with] other people that care about it and to learn maybe something new about how to integrate nature into our lives every day.” Michael Buckley, an assistant manager and cheesemonger at Provisions Wine, said he’s excited to contribute to Flora & Fromage because “an event that combines botanical art with cheese is a really exciting way for us to show off our products and collaborate with the artistic community in western Mass.” (Also, he said, the Provisions staff member who’ll be on-site for the event will be able to talk about the provenance of the cheeses available – the land they come from, what the cows there eat, etc. – making the event educational as well as culinary.) The cheese counter at Provisions Wine’s Amherst location. Provisions will supply the cheese for Flora & Fromage. COURTESY MICHAEL BUCKLEY Cheese, he pointed out, is “naturally a comfort food” year-round, but especially one that people turn to during the winter months (in fondue, for example, and cheese trays at holiday get-togethers). Beyond that, cheese is also “a distillation of nature,” so combining it with botanical art just makes sense. “I think that people can take food for granted sometimes,” he said, “and I love the idea of branding it in a way that treats it with a lot of reverence and as a beautiful craft object, too.” Tickets, which include access to the event (including the cheese), and one complimentary drink, are $60 for one person or $100 for two people (before Sunday, Jan. 5, when prices increase to $75 and $120, respectively) at floraandfromage.com. Carolyn Brown can be reached at [email protected].