Sept 15-18: The Full Monty presented by Theatre Winter Haven at the Chain of Lakes Complex. Thu-Sat, Sept 15-17, 7:30pm; Sun, Sept 18, 2:30pm.  Adults $22/Students $19. Can’t make it this week? You are in luck. The show runs through October 9th. Tickets: 863-294-7469.

Sept 16-18: The Wind in the Willows, a “Theatre for Youth” production of Lakeland Community Theatre at the Lake Mirror Theatre. This weekend only! Fri, Sat 7:30pm and Sat, Sun 2pm. $10 Adults /$8 Children 12 & Under. Tickets: 863-603-7529.

Sept 16-18: The Tale of Snow White, a children’s theatre production of Lake Wales Little Theatre. Fri-Sat, Sept 16-17, 7:30pm; Sun, Sept 18 2:00pm. The show also runs next weekend (Sept 23-25). Adults $10 /18 & Under $7. Call the voice-mail ticket line at 863-679-8587.

Saturday, Sept 17, 2011. Family Day: World on a Plate.  11am to 3pm. Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland’s FREE annual open house and art carnival for the entire family! Information: 863-688-5423.

Saturday, September 17. Opening Reception for Inspirations: The Member’s Exhibition at Ridge Art Association in the Chain of Lake Complex, Winter Haven. 6:30 to 8:30pm.  Check out the FREE exhibition before you go see The Full Monty right across the lobby. Phone 863-291-5661 for more information.

September 18:  Hidden Garden Melodies from noon to 4pm. Guitarist Joe Gavin performs in the East Glade of Bok Tower Gardens. Included with general admission of Adults $10 / Children $3. Phone 863-676-1408 for more information.

Sunday, September 18th from 2-4pm enjoy the Over 55 Show Band in the Winter Haven Fine Arts Theatre at Polk State College. Tickets $8/person. Phone: (863)297-1050.

Sunday, September 18th. Enjoy a Mel Brooks Double Feature for only $5/person at the historic Polk Theatre in Lakeland. Blazing Saddles begins at 2pm. Young Frankenstein begins at 4pm.

View the Polk Arts Alliance event calendar to learn more about these events and other arts and cultural events happening throughout Polk County.

Nov 11-14: Harrison School of the Arts presents Camelot
Thursday-Saturday at 7:30pm / Sunday at 2:00pm
Ticket Prices: $10 Adults / $8 Senior Citizens and Students
Purchase tickets online.  The box office will be open 1 hour prior to the performance.  Phone: 863-499-2939.  Harrison Arts Website.

Nov. 12-14: Architecture in Landscape Art Workshop
A three-day workshop for intermediate & advanced students of watercolor, acrylic and oils with artist Gary Gessford at Bok Tower Gardens in the setting of Pinewood Estate.  Bok Tower Gardens Website.

Nov. 12: View & Review at Polk Museum of Art
Polk Museum of Art hosts another installment of View & Review, an informal art critique for emerging artists. This View and Review is led by Rocky Bridges and Leslie Neumann, two of the artists who have work on display in the exhibition Visual Unity 2. The event starts at 6:00pm. Artists who wish to have their work critiqued by Bridges and Neumann must pre-register, but the event is also open to people who are interested in simply hearing what is said.  Admission is $15 per piece for artists who are presenting artwork, and $5 for the audience.  A cash bar will also be available.  Artists must pre-register by calling 863-688-5423 by November 9.  Polk Museum of Art Website.

Nov 13: Behind the Art of Visual Unity 2
On Saturday, November 13, Polk Museum of Art hosts a roundtable discussion of the Visual Unity 2 exhibition. At least nine artists are confirmed for the event, which delves into the experiences of the artists as they prepared their artwork for the exhibition. The event is from 1:00 – 2:00pm, and is free with regular Museum admission.  The confirmed artists to speak at Behind the Art are: Rocky Bridges (Tarpon Springs), Leslie Neumann (Aripeka), Lucia Taxdal (Winter Haven), Monica Eastman (Plant City), Monica Londono (Sarasota), Theo Wujcik (Tampa), Kirk ke Wang (Tampa), Jill Cannady (Deland), and Robert Stackhouse (St. Petersburg). Other artists may appear if their schedules allow.  Learn more at the Polk Museum of Art Website.

Nov 13: Polk County Art Teacher’s Invitational Reception
A reception for the Polk County Art Teacher’s Invitational takes place at Ridge Art Association Gallery on Saturday, November 13 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.  The exhibition runs in the Gallery from October 26—November 17, 2010.  Visit the Ridge Art Website.

Nov 15: American Festival Pops Concert
The Lakeland Choral Society presents an American Festival Pops Concert at the Ramon Theater in Frostproof on Monday, November 15 at 7:30pm.  Tickets: Adults $10, Students $5.  Tickets are available at the door on the evening of the concert.  Click here to visit Lakeland Choral Society on the web.

Learn more about arts and cultural activities and how you can support the arts by visiting the Polk Arts Alliance Website.

Admission is $5 per participant and children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information please call 863-688-5423 or visit  www.PolkMuseumofArt.org.

October 1-27    Fear (Juried Exhibition)
Arts on the Park, 115 N. Kentucky Ave, Lakeland, FL 33801
Reception and Awards, Friday October 1, 2010 6-9 p.m.
Gallery hours are Noon – 4:00pm, Tuesday – Saturday.

October 1-29    Vilas Tonape Exhibition: Kruti
Melvin Gallery, Florida Southern College
111 Lake Hollingsworth Dr, Lakeland FL  33801
Opening reception is Friday, October 1 at 7pm in the Melvin Gallery.
Gallery Hours are 9am – 4pm, Monday – Friday when school is in session.

Oct 2-Dec 2: “Florida Expressions” Art exhibit featuring the works of Polly Tetrault, a self-taught artist whose pastel and oil paintings express the beauty in nature that is often taken for granted.
Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd, Lake Wales, FL 33853
9am – 5pm daily

October 2 – January 8 at Polk Museum of Art (2 new exhibits)
Eye See America: Through the Lens of Joshua Mann Pailet
Visual Unity 2: View the results of “What happens when you partner 19 very different artists and tell them to make a piece of art together?”
Polk Museum of Art, 800 E. Palmetto St, Lakeland, FL  33801
Museum Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm, Sunday 1 – 5pm.  Closed Mondays and major holidays.

Click here to learn more about arts and cultural happenings in Central Florida’s Polk County – The Heart of the Arts.

Museum visitors who present the official Smithsonian pass gain free admission for two people. Free tickets are limited to two persons per pass with one pass per valid email address.  Tickets are valid at one location only and must be surrendered at the time of their visit.  Museum and cultural institution staff are unable to print out free passes on site.

Regular admission prices per person apply for those not presenting  the official free pass from smithsonian.com.

Visit www.smithsonian.com/museumday for additional information and to learn about other participating Museum Day locations.

It all starts Saturday, September 18 at 11:00am, and besides the great entertainment (that I’ll be telling you about below), the first 500 school age children through the door will receive a free bag of art supplies!

So what can you do or see at Family Day? How about performances by Didgeridoo Down Under, magician Luis Campaneria, Tampa Taiko Japanese drumming, and the Kuumba Dancers & Drummers? You can also find balloon bending, face painting, a community sculpture project, a global stick game, portrait sketches, a bake sale, and tables about countries from all over the world. For art activities, you can try your hand at paper African masks, origami lanterns, Japanese kimono dolls and carp kites, Moroccan good luck hands, Australian didgeridoos, and Chinese good luck door hangers.

The event runs 11:00am – 3:00pm on September 18. You won’t want to miss it!

Jerry Uelsmann, Untitled, 1987, Gelatin Silver Print, 16 x 20 inches, Collection of Lee and Becky Jackson

Polk Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, The Surreal Photography of Jerry Uelsmann, is certain to be a favorite among people who love photography or surrealism. The artist, Jerry Uelsmann, is a former University of Florida photography professor, and he’s been creating dream-like images in his darkroom longer than Photoshop has been around! He uses up to 7 enlarges to create composite images from his original negatives, and then develops the paper using traditional chemical processes.

The exhibition will be a 50 year retrospective of Uelsmann’s work, and it will be on display November 14 – January 17.

On Saturday, November 7, join Winter Haven designer and caterer Phillip Burkhart for this hands-on opportunity. All you have to do is provide your own container. Phillip is bringing the rest, including a boxed lunch that will be served in between the two sessions: one session is 10:30am-1:30pm and the other is 12:30-3:30pm. The cost for the workshop, including lunch, is $30 for Museum Members and $35 for Non-members.

Call 863-688-5423 to register because space is limited!

The concept of Beautiful Things was came from the idea that beauty is found within everything.
The Museum’s curator, Todd Behrens says, “This exhibition is an opportunity to judge your own idea of beauty, taste, art, and potentially, ugliness.”

Everyone is encouraged to discuss the artwork  with the Museum’s Curator by writing about your idea of beauty or about specific pieces that you find beautiful. The goal is to generate conversation about what makes an object beautiful.  Some pieces on display may be more traditionally beautiful while others may have a more subtle form of beauty.

Several pieces in the exhibition have been picked by Museum staff and will include their comments about why they chose a particular piece. Through this exercise you will see that ideas about beauty in art vary widely.

 A Perfect Mesh, on the other hand, is intended to showcase the Museum’s growing collection of screen prints.

Screen printing became well known in the United States through the business of commercial printing. Now it used by major and emerging artists as a useful media for producing original prints.

Thanks to Douglas Screen Printers, Inc., the Museum has been able to purchase several major screen prints over the last few years, including works by Robert Indiana, Jacob Lawrence, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg.  In addition to these pieces, the exhibition includes other important screen prints from the Museum’s Permanent Collection.

Both exhibitions open on September 5 and run through November 8. A reception for the exhibitions will be held on Friday, September 11, 5:30 – 8:30pm, with a lecture at 6:00pm. Light refreshments and a cash bar will begin at 7pm. Admission to the reception and lecture is free for Museum members and $10 for non-members.

This year’s Family Day features a “Going Green” theme. Activities and entertainment will feature a variety of eco-friendly ways to be artistic and creative, including the chance to participate in the construction of a large sculpture made from recycled materials. A diverse entertainment schedule will include Tampa Taiko, Japanese drummers whose instruments are made from recycled wine barrels; didgeridoos made from old PVC pipes by Didgeridoo Down Under; a recycled magic show by Luis Campaneria; and more.

The event takes place from 11am – 3pm, and art supplies will be given away while supplies last.

Family Day part of the Diversity Partnership Multicultural Week and is sponsored by: MIDFLORIDA,  The George W. Jenkins Fund though the Community Foundation of Greater Lakeland, BCI Engineers & Scientists, Mosaic, The AT&T Real Yellow Pages, Friends of the Lakeland Public Library, Kohl’s, Pepperidge Farm, and Party People Celebration Company.