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Award recipients must have achieved success within their college service district and demonstrated notable community involvement.

Ire Bethea retired after a combined 30 years of service with the City of Ocala and the Boys and Girls Club of Marion County and currently represents District 2 on the Ocala City Council. He is a lifelong resident of Ocala and a graduate of Ocala High School, Central Florida Community College (now the ��������) and St. Leo University.

Bethea has volunteered with multiple organizations and committees throughout his career and retirement, and many of his volunteer efforts are focused on helping Marion County’s youth. He is a graduate of Leadership Ocala/Marion Class XVII, Past-Polemarch of the Gainesville Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., serves as a deacon at New St. John Missionary Baptist Church and is chairman of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Commission.

His many honors include the �������� Distinguished Alumni Award in Spring 2021; Man of the Year Award in 2006 from the Alumni Chapter, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.; the Racial Harmony and Cultural Awareness “Unsung Hero Award” in 2011; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People “Service and Uplift to the Community Award” in 2015; and the Rotary “Service Above Self Award” in 2019. He was also was inducted into the African American Museum of Marion County in 2015.

The 75 piece “Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau,” exhibition will be on view Nov. 6, 2021-Jan. 9, 2022. Selected from The Dhawan Collection in Los Angeles, it is one of the finest private collections of Alphonse Mucha’s work in the United States. Mucha is most often remembered for the prominent role he played in shaping the aesthetics of French Art Nouveau at the turn of the 20th century.

Included in the exhibition are rare original lithographs and proofs, an oil painting, drawings, a pastel, and books, posters, portfolios and ephemera. The exhibition is curated by esteemed art historian Gabriel Weisberg, professor of Art History, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, who has provided an essay for the exhibition catalog. Weisberg writes, “In 1900, when the widely distributed French periodical Art et Décoration published a long and exhaustive article on the work of Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939), the Czechoslovakian artist was at the pinnacle of his creative powers. Varied, expressive, and seductive, his works were given the name “the Mucha style”; later the style was identified as “Art Nouveau.”

Mucha’s successes in many fields of creativity are revealed in the exhibition, dedicated to the broad range of his work. The exhibition focuses on posters, book and journal illustrations, the Slav Epic canvases, and the ways Mucha revitalized an interest in these media.  It provides an opportunity to see how the different media, clients and objectives reflect the time period in which the artist lived and worked.

“Mucha’s ability to understand the major creative themes of the day, to use them in the most original ways possible, and to create works of art that remain seductive for future generations, is truly his great triumph,” said Weisberg. With objects drawn from the extensive Dhawan Collection, and with the publication of this catalog, the exhibition provides a new, original way of seeing one of the most prolific creators of fin-de-siècle imagery.

The exhibition and museum tour were organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles.

Upcoming Exhibition Events:

Director’s Circle and VIP Opening Reception

Friday, Nov. 5, 6-8 p.m.

Appleton Director’s Circle members are invited for a reception and to be the first to see “Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau.” Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served. RSVP required to Colleen Harper, harperc@cf.edu, or 352-291-4455, ext. 1831.

Online Exhibition Talk with Angelina Lippert “The Art Nouveau Posters of Alphonse Mucha”

Sunday, Dec. 12, 2 p.m.

Learn more about Alphonse Mucha and his iconic posters in this free online talk by Angelina Lippert, chief curator of Poster House in New York City. Poster House is the first museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to posters. There is no fee or registration required to attend.

Meeting ID: 939 8382 6915

Passcode: 011181

The Appleton Museum, Artspace and Store are open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. A campus of the ��������, the Appleton Museum of Art is located at 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, east of downtown on SR 40 (exit 352 east off I-75 or exit 268 west off I-95). Parking is free. For more information, call 352-291-4455 or visit

The “Blackbird Bound: Visual Verses” exhibits the work of six local artists inspired by the haiku-inspired poems of Wallace Stevens. Artwork will be on display from Oct. 4 through Dec. 3 at the Citrus Campus, 3800 S. Lecanto Highway.

Through paintings and sculptures, the artists have reimagined Steven’s “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” which explores different ways of seeing and perceiving the world. This delightful exhibit displays selected artworks alongside Stevens’ poems, pairing art with literature. Visual sensations in the poems and artworks include winter landscapes, geometry, and fairy tales. All play with point of view and perception.

There is no fee to view the exhibit, which is on display in the upper level of the Dorothea Jerome Building. Viewing hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The exhibit will be closed during the weekend. For more information contact Michele Wirt, Visual Arts and Humanities faculty, at 352-746-6721, ext. 6131, or email wirtm@cf.edu. To learn about other events at ��������, visit .

Photo: “Crow Gone Rogue” by Brenda Spilios, leader of the art group artOasis.

 

The “Heart of the Horse” collection features 40 black and white photographs of horses that reflect the beauty and complexity of these exquisite animals.

Internationally acclaimed photographer Juliet van Otteren’s photographs seek more than the simple documentation of beautiful horses. Rather, her black and white images strive to capture their essence, perhaps even a glimpse into their souls. By spending significant time with a limited number of equine subjects, van Otteren is able to forge an intimate connection that captures their grace, close familial relationships, playfulness, and their ancient bond with us as human beings.

Juliet van Otteren began creating photographs when she lived in various communities in the Himalayas and the Middle East. After living in the serenity of the English countryside for many years, van Otteren returned to the United States in the late 1990s and is now based in Florida. Her work is in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, among many others. Private collections include those of Gloria Vanderbilt, William Kennedy, Isabel Allende and Stephen Hawking.

Today van Otteren continues to travel the world creating unique images. The accompanying catalog, “Heart of the Horse,” with texts by astrophysicist and author Alan Lightman and a foreword by renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, was published by Barnes & Noble in 2004. The book will be available for purchase in the Appleton Store.

 

Upcoming Events with the Artist:

Gallery Tours

Saturday, Nov. 6, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Visit the museum on Free First Saturday and take a tour of “Heart of the Horse” with van Otteren. Both tour times are free for members and nonmembers as part of Free First Saturday. No registration required to attend.

Artist’s Outlook Online Talk

Thursday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m.

Join Curator of Exhibitions Patricia Tomlinson and van Otteren for a free talk on Zoom to discuss the artist’s work, inspirations, and more.

Meeting ID: 302 190 0088 │Passcode: 352352

 

The Appleton Museum, Artspace and Store are open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. A campus of the ��������, the Appleton Museum of Art is located at 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, east of downtown on SR 40 (exit 352 east off I-75 or exit 268 west off I-95). Parking is free. For more information, call 352-291-4455 or visit