2009 – 2010 Lakeland Sculpture Invitational

September 2009 – August 2010

A Joint Project of Polk Museum of Art and the City of Lakeland
Lemon Street Promenade, Downtown Lakeland

Selected artists:

  • Carl Billingsley
  • James Oleson
  • Hanna Jubran

The Lakeland Sculpture Invitational, showcases four or five works by three artists, instead of the ten artists that were displayed as part of the Sculpture Competition. The sculptures are installed on the three blocks of the Lemon Street Promenade between South Florida and Massachussetts Avenues.

Polk Museum of Art has been working with the City of Lakeland since 1999 to place sculpture on the Lemon Street Promenade. In the past, we’ve presented two one-person exhibitions, and seven years of the Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition. Last year, due to budget concerns, the City of Lakeland decided to try something different. Supporters of recent sculpture projects raised enough private funding to support an invitational exhibition. This year, funds continued to be tight, and the city asked the sculptors who were installed last year if they would be willing to leave their work on display downtown for another year. Happily, two of the three were able to do so! Carl Billingsley and Hanna Jubran both loaned their work to us for 2009-2010.

In the Summer of 2009, the City and Museum staff invited James Oleson, a sculptor from Brooksville, Florida, to install his work on the block between Kentuck and Massachusetts. Carl Billingsley has the block between South Florida and Tennessee, and Hanna Jubran has the block between Tennessee and Kentucky.