Florida Artists Group Area V: New Work
2026-06-23 00:00 - 2026-07-25 23:59 (America/New_York) | Hand Art Center, 139 E. Michigan Ave., DeLand, FL, United States
Exhibit Location: Hand Art Center

Exhibit Reception: Friday, June 26 from 5 to 7 pm

Summer Schedule: Tuesday to Saturday: noon-4 pm. Closed on July 2-4.

Exhibit featuring The Florida Artists Group Inc. – Area 5 – Brevard, Osceola, Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Lake Counties.

Featured Artists

Peggy Banks, Kelly Berning, Donne Bitner, Cheryl Bogdanowitsch, Chee Bravo, Mindy Z Colton, David Lee Cumbie, Nancy Dillen, Therese Ferguson, Deborah Hildinger, Carson Kapp, Sophia Lacroix, Grace Leal, Barbara Leto, Renee Lewis, Susan Martin, Kestrel Michaud, Raymond Olivero, Kathy O’Meara, Clare Radigan, Juliana Romnes, Margaret Schnebly Hodge, Katty Smith and Lynn Warnicke

Exhibition Manager: Jody Poczik

IMAGE CREDITS

Slide 1: Nancy Dillen, The Gossamer Navigator; Peggy Banks, Dancing Through the Trees | Slide 2: Smoke Goddess by Kelly Berning; Black Circle by Donne Bitner; The Choir by Chee Bravo | Slide 3: Barbara Leto, Botanical Whispers; Cheryl Bogdanowitsch, Owl Protector; Therese Fergunson, Perfection in Blue; David Lee Cumbie, Chief Big Head | Slide 4: Mindy Z. Colton, Storm Horse; Deborah Hildinger, An Offering For Their Future; Grace Leal, Echoes of Memories | Slide 5: Sophia Lacroix, Bel Machann Ti Panyen; Kestrel Michaud, Leap of Faith; Raymond Olivero, Up the Down Staircase | Slide 6: Renee Lewis, Thru the Eyes of Klimt; Susan Marin, Down to the River; Kathy O’Meara, Murmurs of Memory; Juliana Romnes, Chasm | Slide 7: Ellen Pavlakos, On the Wall; Margaret Schnebly Hodge, Impermanence; Katty Smith, Where Memory Resists; Lynn Warnicke, Soaring thru the Shadows | Slide 8: Clare Radigan, Barn Studio; Carson Kapp, Spiritual Awakening

Postcards from my Travels: A ~Bluemner Kids~ Exhibit
2026-06-23 00:00 - 2026-07-25 23:59
Exhibit Location: Oscar Bluemner Gallery, Hand Art Center

Summer Hours: Tues – Sat, noon to 4 pm, or by Appointment. Closed July 2-4.

In partnership with Visit West Volusia, this art exhibit focuses on documenting adventures near and far for children of all ages. From discovering our local natural springs to admiring the downtown murals, you can capture your own backyard just as Oscar Bluemner did in this collection. Learn more at visitwestvolusia.com.

Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938) visited many places across New Jersey. From lush forests to quiet towns, he produced sketches and notes on location, capturing the scenes before him. This hands-on exhibit features enlarged reproductions of artworks and special activity stations for visitors of all ages.

Event Calendar

Sat, June 27, from 2 to 4 pm: Oscar Bluemner’s Birthday Party

Sat, July 11 at 4 pm: Drag Storytime with Volusia Pride

Babies @ the Hand

Tues, June 30, 9:30 am: Babies @ the Hand

Tues, July 14, 9:30 am: Babies @ the Hand

Toddler Time

Wed, July 1, 3 pm: Toddler Time

Wed, July 8, 3 pm: Toddler Time

Wed, July 15, 3 pm: Toddler Time

Wed, July 22, 3 pm: Toddler Time

(All Ages) Arts & Crafts

Sat, July 18, from 2 to 4 pm: (All Ages) Arts & Crafts

Sat, July 25, from 2 to 4 pm: (All Ages) Arts & Crafts

Exhibit Reception for Florida Artists Group Area V
2026-06-26 17:00 - 19:00
Exhibit Location: Hand Art Center

Join the opening reception for the exhibit Florida Artists Group V: New Works

Featured Artists

Peggy Banks, Kelly Berning, Donne Bitner, Cheryl Bogdanowitsch, Chee Bravo, Mindy Z Colton, David Lee Cumbie, Nancy Dillen, Therese Ferguson, Deborah Hildinger, Carson Kapp, Sophia Lacroix, Grace Leal, Barb Wheeler Leto, Renee Lewis, Susan Martin, Kestrel Michaud, Raymond Olivero, Kathy O’Meara, Ellen Pavlakos, Clare Radigan, Juliana Romnes, Margaret Schnebly Hodge, Katty Smith and Lynn Warnicke

Exhibition Manager: Jody Poczik

Oscar Bluemner's Birthday Party
2026-06-27 14:00 - 16:00
Celebrate Oscar Bluemner’s 159th birthday at the Hand Art Center! Snacks and cupcakes available while supplies last.

All ages (from babies to teens, and adults too!)

Julius Oskar Blümner (Oscar Florianus Bluemner) was born June 21, 1867, in Prenzlau, Prussia (now Germany). In 1997, his life’s work was generously donated to Stetson University by his daughter, the late Vera Bluemner Kouba.

Babies @ the Hand
2026-06-30 09:30 - 10:30, 2026-07-14 09:30 - 10:30
Exhibit Location: Oscar Bluemner Gallery, Hand Art Center

Parking: A dedicated parking lot is available on E. Arizona, off of Amelia Ave. If you have trouble finding the museum, please call 386-822-7270.

This event is associated with Postcards from my Travels: A ~Bluemner Kids~ Exhibit

In this free program, guardians and babies are invited to enjoy the museum before we open to the general public. Older siblings are welcome too since our self-guided art stations will remain accessible during this event.

Event Activities:

Connect with other participants

Music and movement

Staff-assisted craft project

Free play with rattles and blocks

Baby Gallery Walk: take your baby on a calming tour of our adjacent exhibit, Floria Artists Group – Area V. At the infant stage, colors and textures are interesting and stimulating.

Toddler Time
2026-07-01 15:00 - 16:00, 2026-07-08 15:00 - 16:00, 2026-07-15 15:00 - 16:00
Exhibit Location: Oscar Bluemner Gallery, Hand Art Center

Parking: A dedicated parking lot is available on E. Arizona, off of Amelia Ave. If you have trouble finding the museum, please call 386-822-7270.

This event is associated with Postcards from my Travels: A ~Bluemner Kids~ Exhibit

In this free program, toddlers enjoy special activities beyond the stations already provided in our summer kids exhibit. Older and younger siblings are welcome too.

Event Activities:

Connect with other participants

Music and movement

Staff-assisted craft project to take home

Open play with museum toys

Drag Storytime with Volusia Pride
2026-07-11 16:00 - 17:00
Location: Oscar Bluemner Gallery, Hand Art Center

Parking: A dedicated parking lot is available on E. Arizona, off of Amelia Ave. If you have trouble finding the museum, please call 386-822-7270.

This event is associated with Postcards from my Travels: A ~Bluemner Kids~ Exhibit

Our 2026 Drag Storytime with Volusia Pride is here! Join us on Saturday, July 11 at 4:00 pm for a free, family-friendly event you will not forget.

Hosted by Kirk T DaVinci, enjoy captivating performances and readings by Alexis DeLa Mer, Karl WithaKay and Stella Boheme.

Drag Storytime aims to create a joyful and welcoming space where everyone can feel accepted and valued. Attendees of all ages will have the opportunity to experience the magic of storytelling through the dynamic and entertaining lens of drag performance, highlighting the importance of self-expression and embracing differences.

(All Ages) Arts & Crafts
2026-07-18 14:00 - 16:00
Exhibit Location: Oscar Bluemner Gallery, Hand Art Center

Parking: A dedicated parking lot is available on E. Arizona, off of Amelia Ave. If you have trouble finding the museum, please call 386-822-7270.

This event is associated with Postcards from my Travels: A ~Bluemner Kids~ Exhibit

In this free program, participants of all ages are invited to enjoy activities beyond the stations already provided in our summer kids exhibit.

Sample Stations:

Still Life sketch

Watercolor or acrylic painting

Stamping with paint

Modeling clay activities

Themed or open collage

(All Ages) Arts & Crafts
2026-07-25 14:00 - 16:00
Exhibit Location: Oscar Bluemner Gallery, Hand Art Center

Parking: A dedicated parking lot is available on E. Arizona, off of Amelia Ave. If you have trouble finding the museum, please call 386-822-7270.

This event is associated with Postcards from my Travels: A ~Bluemner Kids~ Exhibit

In this free program, participants of all ages are invited to enjoy the last day of our summer kids exhibit and new art stations.

Sample Stations:

Still Life sketch

Watercolor or acrylic painting

Stamping with paint

Modeling clay activities

Themed or open collage

Carly Gibran | Taking Notice
2026-09-08 00:00 - 2026-10-07 23:59
Location: Gary R. Libby Gallery, Hand Art Center

Reception: September 10, 6-8 pm

Artist Talk: October 2, 10:30 am

Exhibition Statement

The act of noticing is a lost art. This exhibition is a document of what captures my attention in my daily life. Breezeblock compositions on evening walks, natural and created patterns, birds in my garden, and objects found in nature all contribute to my personal visual library. Taking notice of details in my environment is a practice – the natural impulse is to rush, to assume, to zone out and to be distracted.

Working in porcelain presents challenges that are less present with other clay bodies. It is notoriously fussy, with a material memory that leans toward extreme warping and cracking. Despite these frustrations, porcelain’s brightness and translucency keep me engaged.

Artist Biography

Carly Gibran began working in clay in 1997 and earned a degree in Studio Art and Art History from Stetson University in 2003. She makes functional and sculptural porcelain works that are inspired by the natural world. She has taught ceramics in art centers and schools for 20 years.

Recent works by Carly Gibran. Courtesy of the artist.

Little is Said, but Much is Heard: The Paintings of Oscar Bluemner and Harry Sonntag
2026-09-08 00:00 - 2026-12-05 23:59
Location: Oscar Bluemner Gallery, Hand Art Center

Curated by Gary Monroe, this exhibit features artworks by Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938) from the Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection and Harry Sonntag (1900-1991) from the Walker Collection of Florida Self-Taught Art.

Reception: September 10, 6-8 pm

Curator’s Talk: October 6, 5-6 pm

Exhibit sponsored by the Walker Collection of Florida Self-Taught Art

CURATOR’S STATEMENT

Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938) and Harry Sonntag (1900-1991) shared little public acclaim during their lifetimes, yet both were modernists of uncommon intensity. Each received formal artistic training only to rebel against its constraints. Each painted places deeply personal to them: Sonntag conjured the drifting dreamscapes of Key Largo in the Florida Keys, while Bluemner rendered the charged geometry of the Tri-State area. Both were extraordinary colorists, abstracting their worlds in radically different ways. Bluemner constructed richly hued, near-geometric compositions, whereas Sonntag’s watercolors dissolved into atmospheric reverie—the contrast between the pressures of urban modernity and the languid rhythms of tropical life.

Their lives also bore striking similarities. Both struggled financially, lived with profound dissatisfaction, and died with far less recognition than their work arguably deserved. Sonntag was dubbed “the Hermit Artist of Key Largo,” while Bluemner moved within the high-art circle surrounding Alfred Stieglitz, without the sustained attention granted to many of his contemporaries. Admirers of both artists might argue that each transformed personal discontent into artistic vision.

Bluemner emigrated to the United States after studying painting and architecture in Berlin. Dissatisfied with architecture, he ultimately became a fulltime artist, exploring color and abstraction within urban spaces and the rapidly changing rural scenes of the Northeast. After attending Pratt Institute in New York City, Sonntag likewise altered his initial path. He rejected institutional expectations of what an artist should become and drifted southward toward Key Largo, as though the Florida Keys marked the end of both geography and convention.

The trajectory that sparked this less-than obvious pairing was inspired by recent Bluemner pairings by Dr. Katya Kudryavtseva, Curator of the Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection, and Dr. Natália Marques da Silva, director of the Hand Art Center—which featured contemporary artists like Mario Saponaro, Luca Molnar, Amy Vigilante and Jay Henderson. My own pairing is less of a dialog, and not a response. In pairing the Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection and the Walker Collection of Florida Self-Taught Art, my exhibit asks only that, after this scant introduction, viewers look at each painting without judgment to experience whatever it elicits for them.

Gary Monroe, Curator

Exhibit Credits

Gary Monroe, Curator

Jonathan Critcher, Designer

Exhibit sponsored by the Walker Collection of Florida Self-Taught Art

Notes of gratitude: Many thanks to Lance Walker for loaning the Sonntag paintings for this exhibition and for his generous support of arts institutions, especially those presenting self-taught Florida art, and to Stetson University Hand Art Center for championing Oscar Bluemner’s art as part of a national dialogue about this significant modernist. My personal thanks to Dr. Silva for leading The Hand, Stetson, its students, and our community—with ripples far and wide—in a fresh, challenging direction.

Exhibit Reception
2026-09-10 18:00 - 20:00
The Homer and Dolly Hand Art Center invites the public to celebrate our Fall 2026 Exhibits! Enjoy the opening of three exhibits: Carly Gibran | Taking Notice, NO ONE HERE BUT US, and Little is Said, but Much is Heard: Paintings by Oscar Bluemner and Harry Sonntag.

Carly Gibran | Taking Notice

Carly Gibran began working in clay in 1997 and earned a degree in Studio Art and Art History from Stetson University in 2003. She makes functional and sculptural porcelain works that are inspired by the natural world. She has taught ceramics in art centers and schools for 20 years.

NO ONE HERE BUT US

Raw, exquisite and evocative. Unconventional yet deeply relatable.

Arranged by Stetson students who are enrolled in the Community Education Project, NO ONE HERE BUT US explores the notion of curating the ‘outside from inside’ with artworks from public and private collections.

Little is Said, but Much is Heard: The Paintings of Oscar Bluemner And Harry Sonntag

Curated by Gary Monroe, artworks by Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938) from the Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection and Harry Sonntag (1900-1991) from the Walker Collection of Florida Self-Taught Art.

Exhibit sponsored by the Walker Collection of Florida Self-Taught Art

Artist Talk: Carly Gibran
2026-10-02 10:30 - 11:30
Location: Gary R. Libby Gallery, Hand Art Center

Exhibit on view September 8 to October 7, 2026

Reception: September 10, 6-8 pm

Exhibition Statement

The act of noticing is a lost art. This exhibition is a document of what captures my attention in my daily life. Breezeblock compositions on evening walks, natural and created patterns, birds in my garden, and objects found in nature all contribute to my personal visual library. Taking notice of details in my environment is a practice – the natural impulse is to rush, to assume, to zone out and to be distracted.

Working in porcelain presents challenges that are less present with other clay bodies. It is notoriously fussy, with a material memory that leans toward extreme warping and cracking. Despite these frustrations, porcelain’s brightness and translucency keep me engaged.

Artist Biography

Carly Gibran began working in clay in 1997 and earned a degree in Studio Art and Art History from Stetson University in 2003. She makes functional and sculptural porcelain works that are inspired by the natural world. She has taught ceramics in art centers and schools for 20 years.

Recent works by Carly Gibran. Courtesy of the artist.

Juried Show Reception and Awards
2026-10-15 18:00 - 20:00
Save the date!

The opening reception and awards ceremony for the 37th Annual Student Juried Exhibition on will take place on Thursday, October 15 from 6 to 8 pm.

Stay tuned for more information.
