Selected from the Museum’s permanent collection, Observations brings together an unusual collection of photographs that map the social landscape of the street. With each artist's careful cropping, decisive shots, and individual style, the photographs in this exhibition show that the everyday thrum of the streets is anything but banal; instead, these images exemplify how vibrant the city world can be, tracing the human lives and behaviors that make up the daily urban scene. In Observations, we gain the opportunity to take a step back in time and see the lives of those passersby we might otherwise overlook, now through a new photographic lens.

Have you ever wondered about what is going on in a painting? What that daydreaming figure is thinking about? What story the artist is trying to tell? In this original Polk Museum of art exhibition, visitors will be invited to use their own imaginations to look beyond the canvas, asked to envision the unwritten – and unpainted – stories in works of art with open-ended narratives. Featuring more than forty works from the Museum’s permanent collection, this show places each viewer into the essential role of narrator, providing creative answers to the questions the art itself poses but can never reveal.

Sometimes the greatest connections can be made by unexpected juxtapositions. In this installation of works selected from the permanent collection, we seek resonances between works of art of different styles and from across time and media. By inviting visitors to look closely and to think actively about why chosen pieces may have been placed side by side, Juxtapositions proposes no right or wrong answers, initiating instead an open-ended inquiry into the visual and thematic links that connect us and the objects all around us.

The 17th century was a period of great wealth and cultural achievement for the Dutch people. In what was then already called a Golden Age, the Netherlands was a world power whose military fleet was growing and where trade, science, and the arts flourished as never before. Of particular note, the pleasures of music and dancing were a fundamental part of life in both the Dutch Republic and the Southern Netherlands, as reflected in the strikingly high number of Dutch and Flemish paintings that include dancing figures, groups of musicians, and compositions of musical instruments.

This exhibition, custom-curated for the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College by the Hoogsteder Museum Foundation of The Netherlands, showcases 27 Dutch and Flemish paintings from the 17th century, selected and organized around the unifying visual theme of music and dance. All the Masterworks in the exhibition come to the Museum from private European Collections and have not been seen by the wide public before. Visitors will thus have the rare opportunity to see for themselves how brilliantly the Old Masters were able to capture the spirit of the Golden Age in their paintings, revealing in vivid color the insatiable Dutch appetite for singing songs, forming ensembles, and moving to melodies.

Exhibition Sponsors:

Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso is a premier portrait artist whose art historical knowledge is surpassed only by the skill of her brushwork. This exhibition features Dellosso’s tribute paintings to great but often-overlooked female masters of the past.  Looking at women artists from the Renaissance through the modern era, these exquisite academically-rendered paintings are based on in-depth study of artists including Genevieve Estelle Jones, Angelica Kauffman, Sofonisba Anguissola, Remedios Varo, and Sophie Geengembre Anderson. Sadly, these masters have never become mainstream names in the history of art, but they and their stories resonate deeply with Dellosso, who reaffirms their rightful places in art history through her exquisite old master-style paintings.

Sometimes the greatest connections can be made by unexpected juxtapositions. In this installation of works selected from the permanent collection, we seek resonances between works of art of different styles and from across time and media. By inviting visitors to look closely and to think actively about why chosen pieces may have been placed side by side, Juxtapositions proposes no right or wrong answers, initiating instead an open-ended inquiry into the visual and thematic links that connect us and the objects all around us.

Ela’s Forest is a real forest of trees planted in locations around the world. It bears the name of a little girl who loved nature and whose short, beautiful life was radiant. The forest continues to grow as her community plants more trees to honor her memory and keep her light bright. As a member of that community, the Polk Museum of Art adds to Ela’s Forest through this exhibition featuring works by artists close to Ela and her family. It is meant to be an expression of love, support, and comfort to the family as well as a poignant reminder of the importance and power of community. 

— Claire Orologas, Executive Director Emerita and curator of Ela’s Forest

A map of trees and other dedications to Ela can be found here:

Participating Artists

Mike Barickman, Lakeland, FL  |  James Bassham, Lakeland, FL  |  Mary Bassham, Lakeland, FL | Daniel Biferie, Daytona Beach, FL  |  Eric Breitenbach, Ormond Beach, FL  |  Steven Chayt, Winter Haven, FL | Laura Davis, Lakeland, FL  |  Beth Foushee, Lakeland, FL  |  Josh (Bump) Galletta, Lakeland, FL | Victoria Lowe, Lakeland, FL | Csaba Osvath, Tampa, FL | Erika Schmidt, Pawlet, VT | Juliana Capel Velasco, Anchorage, AK

Ela’s Champions in Support of the Exhibition

Anonymous Donors | Irma Cole & Mark Scolnick | Dr. & Mrs. Craig S. Collins | Wes & Liz Craven | The Graces: Nancye Black, Elizabeth Hults, Alice Koehler, Trinity Laurino, Erica Lupercio, Crystal Norman, Jennifer Sabin, Cherish Welch | Ileana Kniss | The Maguires of Lakeland | Jim Malless & Karen Seggerman | April & Matt Mucci | Rita & Don Selvage | Ira & Tammy Serebrin | Sandra & Sam Sheets | Alyssia & Scott Totten | Michael & Lorrie Walker

Over the course of four decades, Dr. Alan and Linda Rich have displayed a passion for helping others, traveling the world and bringing medical care to those in need. With his profession as an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon and hers as an occupational therapist trained to help Alan in clinics and in surgeries, the Riches worked together to transform the lives of many in need of critical eye care. While working in clinics in Papua New Guinea and throughout Africa, the Riches also immersed themselves in the diverse artistic cultures of the countries they visited.  Along the way, they acquired a collection of ritual and ceremonial objects that fill their home today.  In this Polk Museum original exhibition, these artifacts, most of which speak to the close spiritual communion between humans and animals, will be displayed publicly for the first time.