The Beaches Museum – with support from the Florida Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities – will present author Gary Monroe on Thursday, July 11th at 6:00 p.m. This presentation will be held in the Beaches Museum main lobby.
Monroe’s talk,
The Highwaymen: Florida’s African-American Landscape Painters
, relates the story of these now-acclaimed artists, who taught themselves to paint idyllic versions of the Florida landscape and sell their creations door-to-door during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Their paintings have become the measure of indigenous Florida art and are now celebrated and widely collected. Having written the seminal book that introduced the Highwaymen to the world, Mr. Monroe successfully nominated them into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
Gary Monroe’s books about Outsider and vernacular art in Florida distinguished him as the subject’s central arbiter. His book,
The Highwaymen: Florida’s African-American Landscape Painters
, launched a cultural phenomenon. His other books include
Extraordinary Interpretations: Self-taught Florida Artists
and
Silver Springs: The Underwater Photographs of Bruce Mozert
. Gary Monroe, a native of Miami Beach, has been recognized by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Florida Humanities Council, and the Fulbright Foundation. Mr. Monroe has given voice to disenfranchised but fascinating creative people, and in doing so he has enriched our lives by introducing us to new ways of thinking about art and culture.
