Marco Island Arts, Evening Colors painting by Everglades Artist JoAnn Sanborn

Evening Colors
48 x 60

The Everglades painting Evening Colors has been in the studio/gallery for some time. It's out on approval now, and may be going to a good home. Time will tell, but in the meantime you can enjoy it with your coffee.

It's been a very busy couple of weeks, hard to catch up, with too many things scheduled and not enough time between, so there's no daily today. Still, there's a lot to talk about on the Marco Island art scene.

First, and sadly, Christine Neal will be leaving the Art League at the end of April. She's led the Marco Art League into a new era, bringing much energy and enthusiasm to the job. She has worked tirelessly in promoting the arts on Marcoand in the community, and has always been supportive of island artists. She'll be missed, and I wish the board the very best in finding someone extraordinary to take over.

Marco Island has a growing arts community drawing people to the island. People love to be where art opportunity abounds. The Artist Colony at the Esplanade is drawing people from Naples by land and by boat, and people as far away as Miami are coming for the day to have lunch and see what we're all about. Classes at the Art League are growing in popularity and my own classes sometimes draw students from afar to stay, eat, and purchase on the island. Shows like MIFA's Left Bank show draw both resident and visitor arts and patrons. Art brings money and our Realtors and business community benefit!

Still, it was the right thing for the City Council's Arts Advisory Committee to withdraw its request for a percent of developer money for the arts. We're in a deep recession, and now is not the time to ask for anything additional. The arts are important to our humanity and our community, but we'll have to find another way to fund them for Marco Island right now.

Now if we could only get Marcophiles to appreciate Jack Howard Potter's wonderful sculpture, Marco Man!