Please join us on Friday, May 20th from 6:00-8:00pm for the opening reception of the The Artists’ League Annual Summer Salon, The Artful Nude and The Tallahassee Watercolor Society’s 28th Tri-State Juried Water Media Exhibition.

As the population dwindles in summer when many leave Tallahassee for a semester of research or travel, the University tempo changes. Programming at MoFA changes, too: summer is a great time to work with our regional partners. In mid-May, two new exhibitions will open at MoFA: the Tallahassee Watercolor Society annually mounts a juried competition from the tri-state region and the Museum’s Artists’ League hosts a thematic project. This season’s League concept has been based on life drawing since study of the nude human form has always been a staple of academic training. Concepts for exhibitions are interpreted broadly by League artists who do not feel restricted by the themes, in this case “the artful nude.”

2016 is a milestone for the Artists’ League as a membership body: the League had a first exhibition in 1986 consisting primarily of artists who had either graduated from the arts programs at the University or who were in Tallahassee after attaining degrees elsewhere. They were a group of friendly, highly productive artists interested in the idea of lectures, workshops and group exhibition opportunities. Ceramist Cecelia Cunningham and metalsmith Peggy Simmons were part of that first historic exhibition thirty years ago. The League now has a roster of 200 members. When Curator of Education Viki D. Thompson Wylder stepped in as coordinator in 1999, the vitality and variety of League offerings increased; under her leadership—and through the efforts of League program directors and members—a season-long series of events engages artists who continue their alliance with the Museum.