Dr. Anne B. Kerr, President of Florida Southern College, is proud to announce a historic transformational gift to the Polk Museum of Art, through a generous donation from the Nicholas and Ashley Barnett Foundation at GiveWell.

In tribute to Florida Southern College and Museum Trustee Ashley Gibson Barnett's deep commitment to the arts, the Smithsonian-Affiliate museum will be renamed The Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art (The AGB) at Florida Southern College, effective July 13, 2024. This generous gift establishes an endowment to support world-class exhibitions, operations, community art and educational programs, expanding the Museum's engagement, accessibility, and influence.

In the lead up to its major expansion opening in Fall 2024, the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College is excited to announce a multi-year partnership with the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation to display a suite of 14 bronzes by French master sculptor Auguste Rodin. The Museum first brought Rodin’s work to Central Florida in late 2022 with “Rodin: Contemplation and Dreams/Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections.” The exhibition was one of the Museum’s most popular and highest attended to date.

The Polk Museum of Art is pleased to announce the opening of its latest exhibition, “Remembering Vilna: The Holocaust and the Art of Samuel Bak” on view July 29, 2023, through January 7, 2024. Featuring nearly 30 paintings in the Museum’s Dorothy Jenkins Gallery, this powerful exhibition uses Bak’s personal history as a child of the Holocaust as a jumping off point to explore universal themes of conflict, resilience, and hope, the consequences of prejudice and persecution, and the necessity of preserving historical memory for future generations.

Citizens Bank & Trust Mayfaire by-the-Lake is excited to reveal the Feature Poster Artist and Image for the 51st Mayfaire celebration on May 13 & 14, 2023. In a dynamic scene by artist Alex Lanier, Mayfaire’s signature swan is reimagined as a futuristic explorer.

This winter, the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College presents “Edward Hopper and Guy Pène du Bois: Painting the Real,” an original, loan-based exhibition on view December 17, 2022, through March 26, 2023, in the Museum’s Dorothy Jenkins and Harper Family Galleries.

Smithsonian-affiliated Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College opened its newest exhibit, “Lauren Austin: Life in Quilts,” on November 12. The former civil rights attorney turned full-time artist creates large-scale figurative art quilts incorporating her family photos, artist dyed fabric, stone lithography, printmaking, and beading to develop and describe her memories, experiences, and thoughts in a visual story. This original Polk Museum of Art exhibition showcases Austin’s unique vision.

The Polk Museum of Art is thrilled to announce its 50th annual Citizens Bank & Trust Mayfaire by-the-Lake, to be held on the shores of Lake Morton May 7 and 8, 2022, from 9 am to 4 pm.

The Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College announced plans for a $6 million expansion and renovation of the Museum. The expansion will add more than 10,000 sq. ft. of gallery, classroom, and art laboratory space, more than tripling the Museum’s main gallery space. Construction on the new addition is expected to begin late this year, with a projected completion in the spring of 2024.

This spring, the Polk Museum of Art will present nearly 70 works of the prodigious and widely popular group of artists known as the Florida Highwaymen in an original exhibition entitled “The Art of the Highwaymen: From the Woodsby Family Collection.”

The Polk Museum of Art welcomes the work of celebrated photographer John Pinderhughes into its galleries for an original, extraordinary retrospective exhibition entitled “Finding Meaning Within: The Photography of John Pinderhughes,” on view November 20, 2021 through February 24, 2022.

The Polk Museum of Art is excited once again to partner with Scholastic to host the Annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for Florida’s Polk County Art Region.

The Polk Museum of Art opens a new, original exhibition perfect for the whole family on November 13, 2021 in the Dorothy Jenkins Gallery: “When We Were Young: Children and Animals in Art from the Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples.” The collection of art, curated and donated to the Children’s Museum of Naples (CMON) through fine art dealer and collector William “Bill” Meek III, was created with the experience of children in mind.

This Fall, the Polk Museum of Art and Lakeland Symphony Orchestra are partnering to bring the performing and visual arts together in a one-of-a-kind exhibition, creating an immersive and multi-sensory viewing experience for art and music lovers alike. Guest curated by musicians of the Orchestra, “Pictures at an Exhibition,” opening September 11, pairs artwork from the Museum's permanent collection with hand-picked musical selections performed by the Orchestra musicians themselves.