The Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art revealed its featured poster art and artist Thursday for 2025's Mayfaire by-the-Lake — a fetching swan created by Emma Holland, entitled “Swan’s Special Garden." | Courtesy of The Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art
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The Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College revealed its featured art and artist on Thursday for the 2025 Mayfaire by-the-Lake arts festival — a fetching swan created by Emma Holland, a Tampa-area artist.

Mayfaire-by-the-Lake, now in its 53rd year, takes place on the shore of Lakeland’s Lake Morton on Mother’s Day weekend, which this year is May 10-11.

Each year the festival selects an artist who has exhibited at the festival to create a featured image that will adorn posters, T-shirts and other merchandise.

Holland, from Largo, “is known for her striking animal portraits and innovative mixed media techniques,” according to an AGB press release. “Her work captures the essence of Mayfaire — and Lake Morton’s signature swans — through her signature blend of realism and expressionism.”

Emma Holland’s swan is the featured art for this year’s Mayfaire by-the-Lake festival. | Courtesy of The Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art

The swan “has become the symbol of Mayfaire, much as it has of Lakeland itself,” Alex Rich, executive director and chief curator of the AGB, said in the release.

“With Emma’s unique take on our city’s storied avian emblems, we keep the tradition going and continue to champion the talents of both emerging and established artists.”

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Robert Meyerowitz has been a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent. He covered Central America and the Middle East, he was the cofounder and editor of the Anchorage Press in Alaska, and he taught journalism at the University of Alaska. He comes to Lakeland from Park City, Utah, where he edited The Park Record.

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