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The Polk Museum of Art has undergone a name change and tripled its exhibition space, transforming into the 52,000-square-foot Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College.
Its new Dr. Anne B. Kerr Wing officially opens this week, with special lectures and events starting Wednesday.
There are six galleries in the new wing, featuring South American sculpture and Andy Warhol prints, among other exhibits. A seventh gallery has been built in the existing building.
The $8 million construction project began in 2022. It also includes two large classrooms and a creativity station.
New wing, new exhibits: Seven new exhibits are opening with a member’s preview on Thursday evening beginning at 6 p.m. Normally, the museum opens one exhibit at a time.
What started out as a petting zoo in downtown Lakeland in 1966, run by the Lakeland Junior Welfare League, is now a destination art museum. The new wing houses an ongoing collection of Highwaymen paintings, along with areas showcasing some of the 3,400 artworks in the museum’s permanent collection.
AGB Museum of Art Executive Director and Chief Curator Alex Rich calls the expansion a once-in-a-lifetime moment for the museum, propelling it into the ranks of top academic and community museums in “the region, state and nation.”
Each of the new galleries has a theme.
The R. Bruce and Melissa Rich Gallery: This gallery runs the length of the new wing on the first floor. It’s named for the museum director’s parents, following a donation.
The Rich Gallery houses recent loans and acquisitions. It includes works that are new to the collection or on loan for a significant period of time, from many cultures.
“As we think about art history more holistically, we want to reflect a more global view,” Alex Rich explained.
One wall currently focuses on Andy Warhol. Titled “Warhol Condensed,” it includes two Marilyn Monroe prints — one pink and one green — and an iconic Campbell’s Soup Can, a dollar sign and one of his last drawings.
The Lynda and Steve Buck Gallery of Fine Art: This gallery is named for the current museum board of directors’ chair and her husband, who are also two of the museum’s large benefactors.
Two collections are housed in this first-floor gallery –– four 17th-century Italian Baroque paintings by Giulio Carpioni, and multiple Auguste Rodin sculptures that will be on display until January, 2026. The Rodin exhibit came about following the museum’s successful 2022 show. “When we had the opportunity to bring them back, we brought them back, and we’ve been waiting for about a year to roll them out into the new wing,” Rich said.
Carpioni’s four works are an allegory of the four seasons of man and measure 5 feet by 5 feet. They were donated by Florida Southern College alumna Susan Roberts, Rich said, but they were in poor condition.
“She contributed them to us with the hopes of having them conserved, so we sent these down for conservation with ArtCare Conservation in Miami. They spent two years being revived and rejuvenated.”
The Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation Gallery: The Chao family is also one of the museum’s benefactors.
The first show in this gallery is “Matters of Scale: On The Intimate and The Sublime” and includes some of the museum’s largest paintings and also its smallest works.
Rich said he wanted to encourage visitors to give the big works a closer inspection. People tend to stand back from them, “but what we encourage in the opening text of the show and throughout the show is to get close to them, see how the artist painted that work, how it was carved by that artist’s hand.”
The smallest work is a page from a Book of Hours, an illustrated Bible passage meant to be held in the owner’s hands. The two-sided document is displayed so viewers can see both pages.
The largest is a beach-scene painting by John Briggs, a Plant City-based artist. It stretches across almost the entire north wall of the gallery.
The most unusual might be a throne created by Jorge Aguerrevere, called “Novus Mundus,” Latin for New World.
Sheryll Strang Gallery: Strang is a longtime patron of the museum and a Winter Haven resident.
Viewers can take the terrazzo staircase in the soaring, light-filled atrium –– or the nearby elevator –– to the second-floor gallery, where they will encounter a long-term homage to The Florida Highwaymen.
With windows on either side of the gallery, which is the length of the new wing, visitors can see nearly 20 works, which are on loan from the Woodsby family.
Rich explained that The Highwaymen exhibit held at the museum in 2022 was one of its highest-attended shows.
“We know that they are beloved, especially to our Florida audiences, so this is our tribute to our community, bringing the Highwaymen back. We are going to be a perpetual home to the Highwaymen.”
The Woodsby family has agreed to rotate works from their collection of nearly 270 Highwaymen paintings, all Florida landscapes created by Black artists starting in the 1950s. The current exhibit features works from the two founding members, Alfred Hair and Harold Newton.
Lynne and Richard England Gallery: The Englands have helped the museum in recent years, donating both works and funds.
The inaugural exhibit is “American Art Since the 1960s” and features works by Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Barbara Kruger, and Faith Ringgold, and Robert Indiana’s famous “Love” logo.
Visitors might recognize another Warhol print in this room –– a fuschia cow that had been displayed downstairs last year.
Rich calls this gallery Lakeland’s “Little Museum of Modern Art” and also one of his favorites.
“One of the strongholds of our collection is our post-1960 American art collection, and in this room, we are showcasing some of the biggest names in all of art history, alongside some lesser-known names as we do a treatment on what American artists explored throughout the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st century,” he said.
Dr. Alan and Linda Rich Gallery: The Riches (no relation to the museum director) have worked throughout the world, he as an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon and she as an occupational therapist trained to help him. During their travels, they have collected artwork in Africa and throughout the Pacific. They have donated most of their collection to the museum.
The square window visible on the front of the new wing, along with a window on the north side of the building, flood this room with light.
The exhibit is titled “Surface, Service, and Splendor: Decorating History in Clay” and showcases works from the museum’s ceramics collection, from the ancient Americas through to artwork made in the 21st century from around the world.
Rich said they are telling the story “about the human desire to decorate even utilitarian objects like vases and plates.”
Robert and Malena Puterbaugh Photography Gallery: The couple after whom this gallery is named has donated funds and artwork to the museum for decades, including the collection in this gallery. It features portraits of jazz artists taken by Herman Leonard.
While the gallery is located in the older building, it has been completely remodeled and visitors can flow seamlessly into it from the Strang Gallery.
The exhibit, “Above All, Enjoy the Music,” showcases the musicians, Rich said, and “cements the legacy of a true American art form.”
“We can’t wait to have lots of animating gallery experiences, having jazz quartets performing in here and having really deep dives into the importance of jazz,” Rich said.
The museum will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a special jazz performance on Wednesday evening, beginning at 6 p.m., with live performances by the Sankofa Chorale, and a discussion of the legacy of jazz with Dr. Jessie Owens. It is free to the public.
Learn and create: The renovation also brought three new classrooms to the museum, called the Publix Super Markets Charities Foundation Education Suite, to enhance visitors creativity and art history knowledge.
The TECO Energy Education Classroom turned what once had been office space into a large classroom on the second floor. It will be the area where adult art classes will be held and also where spring- and summer-breakers will take classes.
“It gives them the opportunity to learn about art and to make art themselves,” Rich said. “We’re outfitted with every kind of art supply.”
Another large classroom is located across the hall. Furniture and supplies were donated by Polk County Public Schools through a grant.
The Ruthven Family Creativity Lab is a smaller classroom. Funding for it was donated by the Ruthven family, Lakeland-based builders who specialize in industrial construction. It seats about a dozen people and has four 3-D printers.
All the classrooms have touchscreens and five of the new galleries can be converted to learning and lecture spaces, outfitted with touchscreen-based projectors and screens.
Opening events
Wednesday, Jan. 15 – A celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. beginning at 6 p.m., with live performances by the Sankofa Chorale, and a discussion of the legacy of jazz with Dr. Jessie Owens. Free and open to the public
Thursday, Jan. 16 — Members Reception at 6 p.m., with a lecture by Executive Director and Chief Curator Alex Rich at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 17 – A daylong celebration for members and ticket-holders
- 11 a.m. – Designing the expansion: meet the architect, Tim Hoeft of Straughn Trout Architects
- 1 p.m. – Alex Rich gives a tour of American Art Since the 1960s
- 3 pm. Designing new galleries, a behind-the-scenes Q&A with Rich and the curatorial and creative teams
- Polk at Nite: A ticketed event from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $15-$80.
Saturday, Jan. 18 – Public opening at 10 a.m.
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