Sachs Museum Short Film and Discussion Panel
Aromatic Heritage and Sustainable Futures
August 21, 2025 | 6:00 PM
Farr Auditorium, Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center
Missouri Botanical Garden
What happens when the aromatic plants we associate with our culture and land are threatened—or disappear?
Join us on Thursday, August 21 at 6:00 PM in Farr Auditorium at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center for the screening of Ireland and Its Aromatic Heritage, a short documentary film directed by olfactory artist Dr. Gayil Nalls, followed by a discussion panel with leading scientists.
Film Duration: 35 minutes
Panel Discussion: 35 minutes
About the Film
For generations, the rich, earthy aroma of peat smoke has been a defining feature of Ireland’s olfactory heritage—woven deeply into rural traditions and national identity. Today, as Ireland moves away from peat burning in response to climate policy and environmental degradation, this familiar scent—and all it represents—is fading.
Ireland and Its Aromatic Heritage explores how the disappearance of peat smoke as a unifying national scent impacts the physical landscape, cultural memory, sensory heritage, and livelihoods of turf-cutting communities. Through intimate interviews with rural families, peatland conservationists, and historians, the film reveals the complex intersection of scent, tradition, and sustainability.
Panel Discussion
Following the screening, Dr. Nalls, creator of the olfactory artwork WORLD SENSORIUM 2025, currently featured in the Sachs Museum exhibition Smelling the Bouquet, will be joined by Missouri Botanical Garden scientists for a conversation on aromatic heritage and sustainable futures:
Dr. Robbie Hart – Specialist in Himalayan alpine plants
Dr. Mónica Carlsen – Expert in Neotropical plant diversity
Heidi Schmidt – Researcher in plant conservation in Madagascar
Together, they will share perspectives from around the globe on the importance of aromatic plants in shaping culture, sustaining biodiversity, and responding to environmental change.
