Shell museum to kick off series with first lecture
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium on Sanibel is set to kick off its seasonal Lecture Series at the museum, at 3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road, Sanibel. The first lecture will be:
– Jan. 22 at 5:30 p.m.: “Picturing Paradise: From John James Audubon to the Florida Highwaymen” with Keri Watson, Ph.D., associate professor of art history at the University of Central Florida
Florida is home to 45 distinct terrestrial ecosystems, and these diverse geologies have supported and inspired artists for centuries. William Bartram, Titian Ramsay Peale and John James Audubon came in search of native flora and fauna, followed by Martin Johnson Heade, George Inness and Winslow Homer, who were lured by Florida’s natural beauty and warm climate.
Later artists, including the Florida Highwaymen, earned their livelihoods selling paintings of Florida’s landscape to tourists up and down US 1 and A1A. The talk will offer an engaging history of Florida’s landscape through art and how artists’ representations of Florida demonstrate an interconnectedness of nature and culture.
Watson is assistant director of the University of Central Florida’s School of Visual Arts and Design, where she also serves as the director of the Florida Prison Education Project. She serves on the board of the Association of Historians of American Art and is co-executive editor of Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art. Watson authored “Florida’s New Deal Parks and Post Office Murals,” “Visual and Performing Arts Collaborations In Higher Education,” “This is America: Re-Viewing the Art of the United States” and the “Routledge Companion to Art and Disability.”
Cost is $10 or free for museum members.
For more information or to register, visit https://www.shellmuseum.org/in-person-lectures.