Shelley H. Galloway

Shelley Galloway received an MA in Art History at Northwestern University. She is an ikebanist in the Sogetsu School, a freelance floral designer and a visual artist, focusing on photography, video and audio journaling.

Shelley has also been a practitioner of Sogetsu Ikebana since 2001 and holds a Second Level Teaching Certificate. She has served as President of the Chicago Chapter of Ikebana International and is now serving as Programs chair. Shelley exhibits every year at the Chicago Botanic Garden as a member of the Sogetsu School and Ikebana International. She is a member of Ilse Beunen’s International Teacher’s class.

As a long time member of the Garden Club of America, she has served as an Approved Photography judge, Vice Chair of the Photography Committee and has been President of her local garden club. She is an award winning floral designer having won the Fenwick medal in 2011 and the Margaret Clover Symonds and Harriet De Waele Puckett awards in 2017. She exhibited at WAFA India in 2020, winning a Second Place and a Commended for her designs.

Shelley has also won GCA awards in Photography with a Best in Show and the GCA Photography Creativity at the Zone XI Zone meeting flower show in 2011 and Best in Show at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Show 2016 and Best New Exhibitor Award at the Newport Flower Show in Photography - 2016. In 2019, she received the GCA Creativity and the Green Tree Photography Award at the Arts En Fleurs exhibition.

Shelley lectures around the country on her thoughts on the art of Ikebana. She also teaches her floral arts when she sails on Semester at Sea. She has studied European floral design in Tomas de Bruyne's European Master Certification program.

In 2021, Shelley was certified as a Shinrin Yoku forest therapy guide through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and enjoys taking guests on forest therapy walks and her practice is called Blue Forest Nature Walks.