Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens

Florida Icons

January 21, 2005 through February 28, 2005

The annual Starry, Starry Night gallery-to-gallery walk in Ormond Beach, staged by the Casements Cultural Center, the Ormond Beach Historical Trust and Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens, is always a much-anticipated event celebrating the arts and culture in Ormond Beach. This year's event, held January 21, 2005, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, adds ArtHaus of Port Orange, Atlantic Center for the Arts at Harris House of New Smyrna Beach, the Casements Camera Club, and the Halifax Historical Museum of Daytona Beach to the list of presenting organizations participating in the event and exhibitions staged in Ormond Beach.

Starry, Starry Night is free and open to the public. Music, refreshments and trolley service between venues provided. Addresses, phone numbers and regular hours of exhibiting institutions are provided in "venue-by-venue" and "cultural partners" information below.

About Roadside Icons

Roadside Icons is a multi-venue cultural partnership featuring four visual art exhibitions with a common theme: artists' interpretations of roadside architecture and culture that stem from an increasing awareness of the ever-changing environment on Florida's most famous national and state highways. Once festive, fast-lane meccas for tourists, these roads, primarily U.S.1 and A1A, are now more quietly and commonly utilized by residents for commuting and business purposes. The "icons" - still-standing relics of mid-century signage, motel and business design - whose bright, tropical hues have faded to pastel; whose eye-catching signs and mascots, once modern marvels, are now kitschy reminders of a more glorious past - are recognized and interpreted both with historical materials and new works by contemporary artists with this theme in mind.

In addition, newer markers of more current design and cultural focus have become icons to the thousands of residents and travelers who visit beachside Volusia County each year. Images of these places are also featured in the exhibitions, as they best represent change along these "roads most traveled" and prompt viewers to consider their own icons of beautiful design and beloved kitsch on their journeys. Historical photographs and displays, provided by the Halifax Historical Museum, will help viewers compare the roadside environment of Florida's post-war past to scenes captured by the artists and photographers of today.

The paintings and photographs included in the exhibitions staged at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens are exceptional and essential examples of visual art work by Florida artists on the subject matter. In fact, the quality and breadth of Chuck Harris' body of photographs in U.S. Highway 1, Again, for the First Time was the impetus that drove exhibition curator Jeannie Dowis of Atlantic Center for the Arts at Harris House to contact the Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens' director and curator, Ann Burt, to consider staging a companion exhibition including other Florida artists known to be working with these themes. Ms. Burt tapped artists Marc Barrett, Walker Fischer and Richard Reddig, along with newcomer Lesley Giles, to showcase examples from their already extensive bodies of work on similar subjects.

A further and more extensive exploration of these themes by local artists is being made possible through additional cultural partners. Members of the Casements Camera Club, a working and exhibiting group of professional and second-career photographers, will show new works alongside historic photos so that viewers will be able to fully comprehend the amazing changes along the roads they use each day. Director Michael Sanden will curate the exhibits at the Casements Cultural Center; he has been instrumental in mapping venues and sites on U.S. 1 and A1A for easy identification.

ArtHaus, a program-based venue dedicated to educating student artists and exhibiting their work, has invited all Volusia County high school students to enter works in a photography contest, judged by professional photographer Rafael Torres. Six winning entries and awards will be presented by director Kathy Thompson at 7:30pm at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens, on January 21, 2005, during the Starry, Starry Night event. Viewers may drive U.S.1 to see works from the photo contest at ArtHaus, February 3 through February 28, 2005.

Visitors are also invited to stop in at the Halifax Historical Museum in Daytona Beach to view a permanent display of the 15' scale model of the Daytona Beach Boardwalk circa 1938. Created by the famous local model builder, Lawson Diggett, the diorama depicts the famous Bandshell, Sir Malcolm Campbell Clocktower and the Boardwalk amusements area including the Pier and historic Pepp's Pool.

The Museum staff is happy to accommodate media outlets by arranging artist/curator interviews or photo, film, and video shoot schedules with advance notice. Contact Museum Director, Ann Burt, at (386) 676-3347 for more information.

Museum hours are Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 12:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. Seniors (60+), students and children are admitted to the Museum free of charge every day; a $2 donation is suggested for adult visitors.

The Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens is located at 78 E. Granada Boulevard (SR 40), Ormond Beach, beachside, on the southeast corner of Granada Boulevard and Halifax Avenue. Phone (386) 676-3347 for details and information.

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Roadside Icons
A Venue-by-Venue Guide

Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens
78 E. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach, FL 32176
(386) 676-3347
Hours: 10:00am to 4:00pm, Monday through Friday and
12 noon to 4:00pm Saturday and Sunday
$2 suggested donation

Exhibitions

Roadside Icons: Artists explore the changing environment of Florida's U.S.1 and A1A

Florida painters Marc Barrett and Lesley Giles and photographers Walker Fischer and Richard Reddig capture landmarks, architecture, and signage on Volusia County's "roads most traveled" and around the state. Presented by Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens.

U.S. Highway 1, Again, For the First Time: Photographs by Chuck Harris

This Winter Park-based photographer shows prints of places of interest, scenic beauty and representative culture in Florida from a body of work that represents a 20 year survey of U.S.1 and its surrounds, from Key West to Bar Island, Maine. Presented by Atlantic Center for the Arts at Harris House.

Both exhibitions run January 21 through February 28, 2005.

Related events

Friday, January 21, 2005, 6:00pm to 8:00pm - Starry, Starry Night annual gallery-to-gallery walk event. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments served. Recognition of artists and ArtHaus student photography contest awards presented at 7:30pm.

Monday, February 7, 2005 1:30pm - Famed Florida travel writer and founding editor of the International Ecotourism Society Newsletter Herb Hiller will lecture on Florida at the edge of transformation and highlights from his new book, Highway A1A: Florida At the Edge, that will be published in spring of 2005 by University of Florida Press.

Thursday, January 27, 2005, and Thursday, February 3, 2005 from 10:00am until12:00 noon - Lesley Giles will be offering a two session workshop in pastels. The cost is $15.00 for Museum members and $20.00 for non-members. Please contact OMAM at (386) 676-3347 with questions or requests for details.

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About the artists featured at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens

Marc Barrett

Marc Barrett's large scale acrylic paintings often feature the structural details of buildings and roadside life. Works in the exhibition feature "Charley," the gigantic remnants of a cowboy sign that until only months ago towered above Rose Bay; classic cars, motels, and a view of U.S. 1 on a quiet moment. Barrett seeks to document what he says is "a kind of urban individualism that is slowly being eroded by a quickly developing society." He includes "often quirky structures that range from Mom and Pop's to private residences" in his oeuvre.

Barrett holds an MFA in painting from University of Illinois, and has worked as an artist for companies as diverse as Walt Disney World, AAA, and Coleman Aerospace while pursuing his own busy art career. A resident of Orlando, he is represented locally by Arts on Douglas Fine Art and Collectibles in New Smyrna Beach and is a member of the Orlando Visual Artists League.

Walker Fischer

A longtime resident of Ormond Beach and well-known local photographer, Walker Fischer has studied the changes in Volusia County and Florida's east coast and documented them through art photography. An avid surfer, Fischer often finds inspiration for his work at the beach or in his travels up and down the coast. He will present new and older works in Roadside Icons, even showing some of the same places in photos from the past alongside shots from the present. Fischer has had work in numerous local exhibitions, most prominently in Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens' popular Surf's Up exhibition series, and at the Southeast Museum of Photography's 1969.

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Lesley Giles

A new resident of the area and of the U.S., Lesley Giles is an artist from London, England who studied at the Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art, and has an impressive vitae featuring numerous exhibitions in her native land. Giles began painting scenes of Ocean Shore Boulevard (A1A) in the Ormond Beach area immediately after her arrival in Florida in 2003. Yet  even she has noticed the changing environment of local and tourist-friendly A1A. She states, "…in just six months…the campground beach tower has been dismantled, Antiques & Nauticals has been boarded up prior to demolition, the area around the Beach Patrol Tower has been demolished including the old jetty on the beach and even the Citgo has been re-painted!"

Giles sites Edward Hopper as her main artistic influence, but now says she gets inspiration from Martin Johnson Heade (most famous for his Florida sunsets.) She states, "Over the last twenty years, I have developed themes on the solitary object and dramatic light in the landscape that have ranged from huts and lighthouses to flags and washing lines." She enjoys exploring what she calls "the lonely, fringe areas" in industrial settings in her country of origin, but has had no shortage of new subject matter near her new beachside home. Giles is currently working on four separate series of paintings: Ocean Shore Boulevard, Approaching Storms, Gone Fishing and Summer Haven. Her stark yet boldly colorful depictions of local architecture are an interesting and fresh interpretation of familiar local sights.

Lesley will be offering a two session workshop in pastels at OMAM on Thursday, January 27 and Thursday, February 3, 2005 from 10:00am until12:00 noon. The cost is $15.00 for Museum members and $20.00 for non-members. Please contact OMAM at (386) 676-3347 with questions or requests for details.

Richard Reddig

Richard Reddig grew up in Treasure Island and Madeira Beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida. As a Floridian and artist, he, too, recognizes the changing face of the state's roadsides. Although he often photographs natural environments, he states he is "especially attracted to the unique and sometimes surreal places where the works of nature and man collide." His work in the Florida Icons exhibition will show silver gelatin print photos from his own Florida Road Signs series, with most works coming from the 1980's. These signs represent what Reddig calls "fragments of this older Florida," and examine "forgotten'" places still in view: markers for former tourist hubs, aged and weather-worn. The photos are intentionally bleak; the artist added "delicate colors with pencils to suggest the fading of time," thus, they leave no doubt as to the state of the business where they once beckoned travelers in droves.

A self-taught photographer, Reddig has exhibited throughout the state and has work in the collections of the Boca Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg and the State of Florida.

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Chuck Harris

Photographer Chuck Harris challenges viewers to rediscover the historic and natural beauty and inherent quirkiness of U.S.1, in a 20 year artistic survey that began in the Florida Keys and ends in Bar Island, Maine. His photographs, on and off Florida's section of the road, will be featured in a solo exhibition entitled U.S. Highway 1, Again, For the First Time, in conjunction with Roadside Icons.

A commercial photographer and photojournalist for most of his professional life, Harris continues to traverse and photograph U.S.1 between assignments, he says, because he is fascinated by "the lifestyles contained along its length [that] vary from the very old to the progress of the new." Harris' photographs address this compelling dichotomy and feature many versions and visions of "local color." He states, "The interstates may have deprived us of the beauty and eccentricities of this highway, not to mention frustrating bottlenecks and infamous speed traps. But sweet pockets of living nostalgia still exist for anyone who takes the time to reroute back on to this historic route."

U.S. Highway 1, Again, For the First Time was shown in its entirety at the Brevard Art Center and Museum in Melbourne in 1991, the result of an extensive eight year study of the road and the people along its path. Harris stated in an interview from 1991 that he began the project on a whim, never knowing how far-reaching it would be, "U.S.1 is my life. I grew up on it. I got beat up on it. I went to school on it. I got married on it. But I didn't know anything about it or the people who live nearby."

Harris decided to pursue exhibiting the collection again with Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) at Harris House, since both ACA and its community art programs center, Harris House, are located just off U.S.1. in New Smyrna Beach. "Well, that and the Dairy Queen is still there and virtually unchanged from the photo I took in the mid-80's," he jokes. He reflects, "The thing about this road is, it changes all the time."

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The Casements Cultural Center
25 Riverside Drive, Ormond Beach, FL 32176
(386) 676-3216
Hours: 8:30am - 5:00pm,  Monday through Friday and 9:00 am to noon, Saturday; closed on Sunday

Exhibition

Roadside Icons Past and Present

Historic photos on loan from the Halifax Historical Museum capture the area's past architectural treasures through photographs, maps and documents while contemporary photographers, members of the Casements Camera Club, interpret sights and scenes of today. This exhibition will invite viewers to compare a number of identical sites seen in both the historic and contemporary photographs and will underscore the impact of these thoroughfares on local communities.

Exhibiting artists include: Rita Brigugliu, Danielle Cavet-Neetz, Carol Chapin, Beth Ehrlich, Tony Ehrlich, Mag Huybreghs, Sylvia Rohmer, Ginnie Saunders. The impressive work of professional photographer Rafael Torres (not a Casements Camera Club member) will also be displayed.

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ArtHaus Foundation, Inc.
3840 Ridgewood Ave., Port Orange, FL 32127
(386) 767-0076
Hours: 9:00am to 4:00pm Monday through Friday

Exhibition

Roadside Icons: Student Photo Contest Participants

Students were asked to make artistic work that related to the themes in Roadside Icons and concentrate their search for sites on U.S.1 and A1A. ArtHaus Program Director Kathy Thompson coordinated the contest; Rafael Torres was the judge.

All student artwork, including the winning entries, will be displayed February 3, 2005, through February 28, 2005. The opening reception will be Thursday, February 3, 2005 at ArtHaus from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.

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Cultural Partners and Related Exhibitions

Halifax Historical Museum
252 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach, FL 32114
(386) 255-6976
Hours: 10:00am to 4:00 Tuesday through Friday, 10:00am to noon Saturday, closed on Sunday.
Admission: $4.00 Adults, children under 12 years $1.00, admission by donation on Thursday afternoon. Children free on Saturday. Members free.

On permanent display at the Historical Museum is a 15' scale model of the Daytona Beach Boardwalk circa 1938. Created by the famous local model builder, Lawson Diggett, the diorama depicts the famous Bandshell, Sir Malcolm Campbell Clocktower and the Boardwalk amusements area including the Pier and historic Pepp's Pool.

Several historical photos of U.S.1 from the Halifax Historical Museum are on display in conjunction with the new work being shown at The Casements Cultural Center in Roadside Icons Past and Present.

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Ormond Beach Historical Trust
38 E. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach, FL 32176
(386) 677-7005
Hours: 1:00pm to 5:00pm Tuesday through Friday, 2:00pm to 4:00pm Saturday and Sunday.
Admission is free.

Located in the MacDonald House, a historic home built in the 1890's, the Ormond Beach Historical Trust presents small exhibitions of artifacts and photographs related to the history and culture of Ormond Beach. Excellent photographs of tree-lined streets, now modern thoroughfares, and the old Ormond Hotel, as well as information about local sites and a self-guided walking tour is available. Historians are often on hand, but visitors may want to call ahead if they have specific questions.

The Ormond Beach Historical Trust is a presenting partner in the Starry, Starry Night gallery to gallery walk and will be open for the event on January 21, 2005 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

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Atlantic Center for the Arts at Harris House
214 S. Riverside Dr., New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168
(386) 423-1753
Hours: facility is closed through March, 2005, for hurricane damage repair
Staff office hours at 107 N. Orange Ave. in New Smyrna Beach are 10:00am to 4:00pm Tuesday through Friday

Atlantic Center at Harris House is the community arts center of Atlantic Center for the Arts, a nonprofit, interdisciplinary artists' community and arts education facility dedicated to promoting artistic excellence by providing talented artists an opportunity to work and collaborate with some of the world's most distinguished artists in the fields of composing, and visual, literary and performing arts. Atlantic Center at Harris House is dedicated to supporting the arts and promoting cultural growth within the region by providing educational programs for the community and exhibition opportunities for Florida artists.

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This web page was updated on 31-May-2008 07:14 PM -0500