SKETCHES, SCRIBBLES & SCRAPS OF
INFORMATION ABOUT PEOPLE, PLACES
& ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE UPFRONT
Plant Museum’s Gasparilla exhibit
Jim and Celia Ferman enjoyed seeing the (clockwise
from above left) Gasparilla Coronation gowns worn
by their granddaughter, 2019’s Queen Courtney
Farrior, and their daughter, 1991’s Queen Laura
Elizabeth Ferman (Mrs. Preston Farrior), and the
Gasparilla Court gown designed by Ann Lowe for
1924’s Queen Sara Keller (Mrs. Frank Hobbs).
Fire and Ice Gala
36 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | MARCH/APRIL 2020
GRAM
��
The Henry B. Plant Museum, located in the
1891 Tampa Bay Hotel on the campus of the
University of Tampa, was filled with partygoers
and “pirates” during the opening party of its
“Gasparilla: A Tampa Tradition” exhibit, hosted
by the exhibit’s underwriters Laura and Preston
Farrior and Queen Gasparilla CVI Courtney
Farrior, the board of trustees and the Henry B.
Plant Museum Society. Guests admired the exhibit,
which showcased more than 110 years of parades,
pirate invasions, coronation balls and more through
memorabilia and films, plus early designs by Ann
Lowe, America’s first internationally recognized
African American fashion designer. The evening
was topped off by an informative and entertaining
talk by Tampa historian Rodney Kite-Powell.
Cynthia Astrack, president of the Collectors
Circle at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg,
and Jim Sweeny, who contributed to the purchase
of the Kehinde Wiley painting, were thanked for
their help in procuring it for the museum.
Collectors Circle Gift
The Collectors Circle, a support group
of the Museum of Fine Arts, St.
Petersburg, held a reception to unveil
the Kehinde Wiley painting that the group
had recently acquired for the museum.
Wiley, who is best known for his official
portrait of President Barack Obama that
is in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait
Gallery, titled this large-scale portrait
Leviathan Zodiac. MFA executive director
Kristen Shepherd described the work
as “a beautiful bridge,” connecting the
traditional and contemporary artwork in
the museum’s encyclopedic collection.
This major purchase is in celebration of
the Collectors Circle’s 25th anniversary.
The Imagine Museum on Central Avenue in
St. Petersburg held its second annual Fire
and Ice Gala at the museum, where guests
enjoyed dinner and drinks while they visited the
museum’s constantly changing display of glass
artwork. It was an opportunity to experience
many of the museum’s new offerings such as
virtual reality.
NORAA
Dylan Duggan
and his mother
Trish, owner and
creator of the
Imagine Museum
in St. Petersburg,
greeted guests
to an evening
of fascinating,
spectacular glass
displays and
exhibits.
GRAM
La Florida to Go Global
La Florida: The Interactive Digital Archives of the Americas
housed at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg
has been awarded a $250,000 major initiatives grant from
the National Archives. Dr. J. Michael Francis, executive
director of La Florida, announced that the grant will help
make St. Augustine’s diocesan archives of 9,000 handwritten
documents accessible to a global audience via the La Florida
digital platform, which tells the early history of Florida.
The La Florida initiative is titled “Europeans, Indians and
Africans: Lost Voices from America’s Oldest Parish Archive,
1594-1821.”
Dr. J. Michael Francis
is executive director of
La Florida, a collection
of historical documents
pertaining to Florida’s
colonial past.
GRAM