The Artists’ League Summer Annual Exhibition at MoFA

Amanda Thompson, juror for this year’s exhibition of the Artists’ League, stands next to Jon Nalon’s “Air-way or the Highway,” a working lamp fabricated of found objects. To the left is an oil and acrylic painting by Keith B. McCulloch entitled “Swoosh.”

In 1986, when the Artists’ League was newly formed, its first exhibition was hosted in the “Fine Arts Gallery,” the precursor to the current “Museum of Fine Arts.” The spaces of the Gallery were purpose-built with two grand stairwells and a long entry ramp from the lobby shared with the Richard G. Fallon Theatre. Completed in 1970, the Fine Arts Building housed the School of Theatre and the Departments of Art and Art History as well as the Office of the Dean. Originally, the Gallery was managed by faculty from the Art Department and was later overseen by a succession of curators and directors. In 1994, the University sanctioned the name change to the Museum of Fine Arts. For close to thirty years one of the most dedicated support memberships has been the Artists’ League.

Today the current members of the League enjoy a range of programs, of which the annual Summer Salon is one. The League programming committee also schedules lectures and group exhibitions in other venues and each year they seek a Guest Juror to select their exhibitions at the Museum. Juror Amanda Thompson has been serving as Interim Executive Director of the Council on Culture & Arts, but she knows the Fine Arts Building well, having grown up in the space as the daughter of Joe Karioth, a long time Theatre faculty member. We thank Amanda for the lively exhibition she selected and for her role at COCA, the vital local arts organization in our Tallahassee community.

The Artists’ League summer annual exhibition is currently being held in the Museum of Fine Arts in conjunction with the Tallahassee Watercolor Society exhibition, and will remain open until July 11th.For more information on the exhibit visit the Artists’ League webpage.