Dunedin Fine Art Center

Adult Education:The Adult Education program at the Dunedin Fine Art Center (DFAC) is designed to provide exciting and creative educational experiences to the community. DFAC has assembled an award winning, degreed group of instructors who encourage students to reach their full potential with individual attention and an inclusive attitude. In addition to painting, drawing, and clay classes that can be found at many art centers, DFAC also has dedicated studios for jewelry, printmaking, fiber arts, welding, woodturning, stone carving and food arts. Overall, DFAC has 21 studios located at 3 different campuses in Dunedin. Classes are offered year-round with 7 six-week class terms as well as individual workshops. Dunedin Fine Art Center has the unique ability to bring in nationally renowned artists to lead workshops throughout the year, often aligning with the exhibitions in the galleries or partnering with local artist groups. During the 2021-22 fiscal year, there were 3,636 adult course registrations, which is a 21% increase in enrollment from the previous year and approaching pre-COVID enrollment.In order to attract new students, DFAC opens its doors once a year in December for visitors to meet our instructors and see demonstrations of their work in our studios during the Adult Education Open House. Visitors can experience what it is like to take a class here and explore the creative opportunities at DFAC. Also offered is a monthly Coffee and Conversation program (sponsored by the Stirling Society DFAC's auxiliary group), featuring instructors and area artists discussing their work and careers and offering demonstrations of their techniques. These programs regularly attract standing room only attendance. The Dunedin Fine Art Center is dedicated to fostering the vital relationship between creative expression and healthy aging. Many of our senior students express their appreciation for the mental and creative stimulation provided by art activities and depend on the sense of community created in the classes. DFAC's Arts & Wellness program offers classes that focus on improving wellbeing through a guided art practice. Research is continuing to prove that art can improve wellness and quality of life for a wide range of individuals. Participation in art activities lowers the risk of depression, reduces loneliness, and lowers the risk of dementia. Scholarships are available for students in financial need, and DFAC also offers funding for military veterans who would like to take classes.

Exhibits: The Dunedin Fine Art Center (DFAC) has museum quality exhibitions which are organized by our Curatorial Director and Curatorial Assistant. Exhibits change every 8 weeks, on average. In a given year, the public can enjoy 20 different exhibits in 6 distinct galleries plus 7 exhibits in our dedicated Children's Gallery. Our Curatorial Team establishes the exhibition calendar two years in advance selecting from a range of individual artist proposals, traveling exhibits, guest curator concepts plus other organizational and regional proposals. With educational values at the core of the Dunedin Fine Art Center's mission, it has been our goal, at any given time, that a visitor may view works by our faculty and students alongside exhibits of artists of national and international standing. In addition to numerous themed juried exhibitions for community participation, we have a Student / Member / Faculty exhibit that ensures every work of art submitted is shown and celebrated. It is ideal that we have been able to simultaneously stage shows of broader significance in the contemporary art world while maintaining a commitment to our students, members and their families. That commitment along with the talent of our curatorial staff led DFAC to be named best museum in Pinellas County in 2014 in a Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater poll-though we are not a museum nor maintain a permanent collection! In addition to various Critic's Awards, DFAC has received Creative Loafing Tampa Bay's Best of the Bay People's Choice Award for Best Non-Museum Gallery for six consecutive years: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 + 2022 plus Best Visual Arts Curator for 2019, 2020, 2022.Exhibits are a primary component of DFAC's educational and cultural outreach to our community, greater Tampa Bay and visitors to our state who attend lectures and demonstrations by visiting / exhibiting artists in collaboration with our year-round classes and workshops. DFAC's Member/Students are enhanced by daily exposure to a diverse range of contemporary art techniques and media. In addition, throughout the school year, School Tours for children of all ages enjoy: Gallery Talks led by our Youth Education Director, interactive play in our Hands-On Museum and a classroom take-home project conducted by our Youth Education Staff.At the onset of the pandemic, DFAC locked-down but re-opened after 2.5 months with all new exhibits, limited attendance for socially-distanced adult classes and summer art camps with rigorous safety protocols in place. During the pandemic years of 2020-22, we eliminated receptions and recreated our signature special events. During this time, we found new ways of safely fulfilling our mission including virtual Conversations with exhibiting Artists and our Curators for almost every exhibit. Thankfully, by mid-late 2022, we were able to resume our former business practices for classes and all social events.

Youth Education: Besides educational outreach programs for local charter/private schools and organizations like the YMCA, the children and teen program follows the same schedule as the adult program, except for May to August, when a 10-week intensive summer enrichment art academy program for children ages: 4.5 to 14 is held. During the summer program, 7 different weekly camps focus on photography, clay (hand building and wheel), 2D (drawing and painting), iPad Explorations, murals and musical theater are offered to age-appropriate groupings in weeklong sessions. DFAC has up to 200 children per week and employs certified art teachers along with professional, degreed working artists from the Tampa Bay area. At the close of summer, a Summer Art Academy Exhibit is held in our Kokolakis Family Youth Gallery curated by the children, for the children. Close to 50 different schools are represented in our summer camp exhibit. Note: Summer of 2022 still operated all camps at lower capacity (1,497 students attending as opposed to 1,800) due to COVID-19. CDC recommended protocols were successfully put in place in 2020, 2021, 2022. Dedicated Youth Gallery: Kokolakis Family Youth Gallery is used exclusively for children's art work from 4.5 yrs. to 17 yrs. DFAC partners with the Pinellas County School District's Visual Arts Supervisor to provide 4 exhibits yearly featuring 75 Elementary, 19 Middle and 13 High Schools. DFAC also Partners with the City of Dunedin and the Dunedin Principals' Consortium to provide the Dunedin Schools' Showcase exhibit featuring the youth's artwork created in Dunedin. These are wonderful events to attend for the excitement and pride radiating from the children and their families. Dedicated Youth Clay Lab: DFAC has 12 wheels/and a hand building studio which can be used exclusively by children, while 12 additional wheels are used by the adults in the adjoining clay labs. David L. Mason Children's Hands-on Art Museum (DLM Museum): A big part of our Youth Education Program is the Children's Hands-on Art Museum. It gives children the opportunity to explore the different media used in art from clay to electronic graphics and Green Screen. The DLM Museum is designed by DFAC's Director of Youth Education and presents a new theme annually. The 24th annual children's hands-on exhibit's title is Artsy Architecture. This interactive, hands-on experience for 4.5 to 12 years old provides an environment where you can explore how Art and Science go hand in hand in the wonderful world of Architecture. Work in an Architect's office with a drafting table and blueprints, create artsy-structures with foam bricks, cinderblocks & wood, 1 point, 2 point and 3 point perspective activities, animated chalk wall windows to the world, build a Romanesque arch with the keystone, climb famous structures in our own green screen theater, create colorful futuristic cities with colored magna-tiles, stage stop motion city scenes and flip through giant panels of DFAC's building history. Due to COVID-19, Free Family Fun Nights and Make It Take It weekends have been suspended for now. These free programs invite the public in for some artsy fun in our hands-on museum the second Friday of the month, with community partners such as Clearwater Marine Aquarium, The Florida Orchestra, Keep Pinellas Beautiful and Publix Supermarkets. We hope to resume when it is safe for larger groups to gather. School Tours: DFAC's two-hour tour consists of three components: 1) Students start with a 30-45-minute engaging gallery discussion involving science, history, social influence and impact, principles and elements of design, creative problem solving and humor. 2) Students proceed to the hands-on interactive area where they explore, create and build on concepts and images from the original artworks seen in the galleries. Time in the hands-on area is 30-45 minutes. 3) Tour concludes with students gathering in the art studio for a teacher directed, exhibit related activity involving imagination and motor skills. Unique Outreach program only at DFAC: Dunedin Fine Art Center's Wheels on Wheels: A Mobile Pottery Experience, is an exciting, creative, one of a kind, innovative two-hour hands on experience with hand-building clay and more importantly, using clay on a potter's wheel, "Throwing on the Wheel" as it is known. A converted school bus travels to the schools so that students get the opportunity to experience the fun and magic that is clay! Twelve students will be able to practice their "throwing" skills for 45 minutes with 1lb of Mexo-White self-hardening clay on real, electric potter's wheels housed in DFAC's converted school bus. Outside the bus there will be four tables for an additional twelve students using Mexo-Red self-hardening clay to practice their hand-building skills using coil, pinch and slab methods. 1) Youth participating in the program benefit by being a part of a creative process that is not normally available to them in the schools. DFAC's mobile clay wheel lab makes the wonderful process of throwing on the wheel accessible to everyone. 2) Clay is for all ages but working on the wheel is more suited for 8-year olds on up to 108. Currently the Wheels on Wheels program has served over 4,737 participants. 3) This unique, creative and innovative opportunity started as a fun idea from Todd Still, Director of Youth Education and came to fruition through the support of DFAC, Pougialis-Anastasakis Foundation for the Arts, Pinellas Community Foundation, Clearwater For Youth and Parliament Motor Coach.

Memberships and donations subsidize all programs provided by DFAC and are not included in these program revenues.