Polk Museum of Art Hosts Coffee with Artist Beth Ford

The Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College will host Coffee with the Artist: Beth Ford on June 9 at 10:30 a.m.

Ford has taught thousands of students since she started teaching college-level art classes more than 50 years ago.

This Mississippi native who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts and art education from the University of South Florida taught at Polk Community College (now Polk State College) prior to joining the Florida Southern College faculty in 1968. She formally retired from Florida Southern after teaching 38 years, but missed the students so much that she returned as an adjunct professor four years later to teach courses in printmaking. She also has taught drawing as an adjunct at USF.

Her exhibition, “Beth Ford: A Selective Retrospective,” opened in May and runs through Sept. 23. During Coffee with the Artist, Ford will discuss her body of work and the various mediums she has worked in and taught throughout her career.

A variety of mediums are represented in her show, including drawings, mixed media drawings, paintings, intaglio printmaking and silkscreens.

Ford, who turns 88 on June 10, has been featured in group and solo museum exhibitions throughout her career, and her work is in the permanent collections of the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St. Petersburg College in Tarpon Springs, the University of Tampa, and the law firm Holland & Knight.

Admission to Coffee with the Artist is free, but registration is requested: https://polkmuseumofart.org/upcoming-events/coffeeford