St. Lucie Cultural Alliance | Member Spotlight – Fort Pierce Art Club
Contributed by Jeanne Johanson
Member Spotlight – Fort Pierce Art Club
There is rarely a dull moment with the Fort Pierce Art Club, Inc. The membership includes professional and emerging artists from various walks of life: school teachers, a video artist, retired St. Lucie County art teachers, a retired Indian River State College professor, graphic artists, professional framers, a fashion designer, professional ceramic artists, journalists, a landscape architect, and a retired police officer. In a studio full of art supplies each one brings excitement to the Treasure Coast community.
The Fort Pierce Art Club’s original mission is Art Mentoring. Incorporated in 1966 as a 501(c)(3) as The Fort Pierce Art Club, its first president was A. E. (Beanie) Backus, the famous Florida landscape artist and the mentor of the first Highwaymen. Under his three-year presidency, the club held early meetings and shows in his Avenue C studio. In 1988 Backus and 10 other members changed the club’s name to the Treasure Coast Art Association and maintained a storefront studio for 36 years on Avenue A. In 2018 the studio closed and the name changed back to the Fort Pierce Art Club.
At the end of 2019, the club’s president Jeanne Johansen distributed 38 female mannequins to artists in Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, and Palm Beach Counties to create the “In Her Image 2020” exhibit at the Elliott Museum in Stuart, Florida that ran from December 2019 to March 2020.
When COVID shut down schools in March, the Club handed out wooden birdhouses with paints and brushes to individuals and families to decorate. The returned painted birdhouses became an art exhibit outside a local coffee shop. The Club continues to offer free “Art on the Porch” classes every Monday morning at a coffee shop so the public can draw and paint.
In July, the Club sponsored an auction of hand-painted coffee mugs and the proceeds were donated to the Women’s Club of Fort Pierce’s for their community meal program. Artists also painted five bike racks for the City of Fort Pierce.
In November members, local artists, and students participated in a juried show, The Magnificent Miniature Masterpieces. The 3” x 3” paintings/sculptures were auctioned and the monies went to the Club’s scholarship program. The unsold paintings were holiday-wrapped and given to a local assisted living facility.
On Saturday, March 20 from Noon to 4:00 pm the Garden Club of Fort Pierce at 911 Parkway Drive will host the Fort Pierce Art Club’s Fabulous Flamingos with Blooms. Beautifully embellished yard ornament flamingos by professional and student artists from Somerset Preparatory College Academy and St. Lucie West Centennial High School will be auctioned at the event. Proceeds will fund the club’s youth and student fine art scholarships. Information and applications for the fine art scholarships will be posted on the Club’s website at the end of April.
Photos of the Fabulous Flamingos are online, and originals are located in downtown Fort Pierce in store windows and businesses. The auction bidding is now open online and closes at 4:00 pm on Saturday, March 20. To see the Fabulous Flamingo auction and more club information go to www.fortpierceartclub.org.
The diverse club has come full circle and again meets at the president’s studio to work, teach, and continue the club’s mission.