Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts
The Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts houses the administrative office for the Florence Department of Arts & Museums and functions as a center for cultural activities including the Kennedy-Douglass volunteers meetings, the Shoals Artist Guild meetings, Arts Alive administration and activities, W.C. Handy Festival activities, and much more. The center also houses a permanent exhibit of historical artifacts and memorabilia, and offers a variety of traveling art exhibitions.
The center consists of two adjacent houses with an added walkway connecting them, and a carriage house to the rear. The buildings are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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(click on photos to enlarge)
Arts Alive Juried Show
Arts Alive park exhibits 2006
Arts Alive Gala 2006
" Mostly Blues" W.C. Handy Festival Show 2005
" Mostly Blues" W.C. Handy Festival Show 2005
Shoals Artists Guild Annual Exhibition 2005
Shoals Artists Guild Annual Exhibition 2005
Shoals Artists Guild Annual Exhibition 2005
Shoals Piecemakers Quilt Guild's "Quilt Challenge '05"
Shoals Piecemakers Quilt Guild's "Quilt Challenge '05"
Holly & Ivy Luncheon 2005
Holly & Ivy Luncheon 2005
Shoals Artist Guild Meeting
Shoals Artist Guild Meeting
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The
Shoals Artist Guild meets the at 10 am on the 3rd Friday of every
month.
Meetings
are held in the East building center every month except May,
June, and July. For additional information about membership or
meeting dates call Richard
Smith (256) 764-5135 , or email
rsmithwcs@aol.com
The Kennedy-Douglass Volunteers meetings Refreshments are served at 9:30am and the meeting program starts at 10:00am. Meetings are held in the West building of the center on the 2nd Friday of September, October, November, January, February, March and April. For additional information about membership or meetings call (256) 760-6379. Specialgatherings: Volunteers Appreciation Luncheon – in May,TBA Holly & Ivy Luncheons - Cup o'Cheer – in December, TBA (Ticketed)  In
early 2007 Charles E. Moore gave the ancestral home of his deceased
wife Mary Eliza Southall to the City of Florence to be used as a
museum. The property is located adjacent to the Kennedy-Douglass
Center for the Arts, making an arts complex of three buildings.
The house, a Queen Anne Victorian, was built in 1890. According
to historical architecture consultants Gail Winkler, Ph.D. FASID and
Richard Moss, Ph.D.,"This is a fine house, not a plain Jane and a
wonderful house for the city to preserve, illustrating a type of
architecture from this period in  Florence."
The
above information was provided by Barbara Broach museum director.
The photo at right shows some of the work that has begun on the
grounds. The landscaping will tie all three properties of the
center together and unify the center.
Show
Schedule
January
7 - January 29, 2009
Master
Prints: Post-Impressionistic and Modern Art --
Toulouse-Lautrec
to Chagall
 The
works are from the collection of Billy and Wanda Isom and include
lithographs, etchings, serigraphs and Giclée prints. The exhibit
includes works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Joan Miro,
Toulouse-Lautrec, and others.
Billy
Isom
began collecting prints 40 years ago. Initially he was interested
in early American lithographs
but
after about ten years he began
collecting original bird
art from
 the 18th to 20th
century including
works by J.J.
Audubon and J. Gould. Isom then
became interested in
Japanese woodblock prints from
1795 to 1920.
Finally,
through what he calls serendipity and a true interest, he began
collecting works by more well-known impressionistic and modern
artists. “Art collectors do collect,” said Isom, “and remember
that art can never truly be possessed, it just passes through your
hands for a time.”Karen Jacobs: Then and Now The Birmingham artist will exhibit recent paintings and past work that trace her evolution from realism to abstraction. According to Jacobs, her early images were “ dependent on detailed, realistic interpretations. I became less and less satisfied with technical depictions and began to search for other elements on which to focus, such as pattern, followed by a move to minimalism. My need to simplify became dominant to the point of pure abstraction, a process that I find tremendously satisfying.” March 3 - April 10, 2009 Artistic Renderings of Youth A juried exhibit of work by 7th through 12th grade artists from Colbert, Franklin and Lauderdale counties will be on display. Celebrating its fifteenth year in existence, this exhibit has developed into an outstanding showcase of youth art. March is nationally recognized as Youth Art Month. This exhibit provides an opportunity for the community to discover the young artistic talent in our area. The competition is coordinated by a group of junior high and high school art teachers to give students a chance to exhibit their art work and receive recognition for their talent. Works by Dawn Whitelaw Whitelaw maintains a studio at “The Factory” in Franklin, Tennessee. She works primarily in oil and her paintings cover a wide-range of subjects – from beautiful plein air landscapes to softly-hued figurative works to sun-washed interior spaces. She is a member of Alla Prima international, the Cumberland Society of Painters, the National Academy of Professional Plein Air Painters, and the Portrait Society of America. Mostly Blues Get in the mood for the W.C. Handy Music Festival with this exhibit of works with a musical flair by area artists. The invitation-only exhibition has only one requirement: the pieces must have some connection to music. This leaves artists with a free rein to create paintings, drawings and sculptures in a limitless variety of styles, subject matter, and media. www.wchandymusicfestival.org August 13 – September 18 Pastel Paintings by Margaret Dyer Based in Carrollton, Georgia, Dyer is a Master Pastelist with the Pastel Society of America and a Member of Excellence with the Southeastern Pastel Society. Dyer’s figurative pastel paintings have won numerous prestigious awards and are in many private and public collections. Her work has been featured in American Artist, The Artist’s Magazine, International Artist, Pastel Artist International, and The Pastel Journal. Landscapes: Selections from the Corporate Collection of Wachovia Securities
Barbara Broach Museum Director in front of the fountain in the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts court yard.
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* The Alabama Humanities Foundation is the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is funded by the NEH as well as by corporate and individual donors. The AHF is dedicated to the promotion and celebration of the humanities throughout the state and conducts its own statewide programs and awards grants, on a competitive basis, to nonprofit organizations for humanities programs.
