From The Editor: An Ode to Exhibitions

Welcome to Lavender’s 2025 Spring Home & Garden issue! This issue contains, among other Home & Garden stories, two articles related to the Minneapolis Home + Garden Show — one profiling celebrity guest Michel Smith Boyd of HGTV and the other covering the convention more broadly.

Reading about the Home + Garden Show got me thinking about exhibitions of years past and, unfortunately, how far in the past they are. After taking an interest in London’s Crystal Palace FC due to the incredible surname of their young fullback Tyrick Mitchell, I was devastated to hear that their namesake, the Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, was destroyed by a fire in 1936.  I can only imagine what a shining light the Chicago World’s Fair must have been to a nation still suffering the worst of the Great Depression. They just don’t make ‘em like they used to.

As a child and a massive fan of video games, I dreamed of one day attending the Electronic Entertainment Expo, a.k.a. E3. Even that event, a far cry from a World’s Fair, was finally put out of its misery in 2020 after years of slow decline, with COVID-19 dealing the final blow.

Despite the extinction of exhibitions as once-in-a-lifetime, can’t-miss global events and the evolution of social media as a place where one can find inspiration without having to drive downtown and put on a lanyard, the exhibition remains alive. Despite those most minor of inconveniences, I think they’re well worth checking out.

Whether you’re looking for connections, inspiration or branded pens, they’re all easier and more natural to find in person. As useful as Pinterest is, you can’t shake hands with a username or smell the flower emojis.

If you’re looking for home or garden inspiration in particular, you’re in luck this issue. And if you’re looking for something else, just keep your eyes peeled — while we might not be naming sports teams after convention halls anymore, they’re still around and full of wonderful things for you to discover.