Reception for exhibitions “Living With the Spirits of Tradition” and “Hidden Divisions”

Join us at MOFAC from 12:30-2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 11 for an Artist Reception for the exhibitions Living With the Spirits of Tradition: African Art from the Betty Ford-Smith Collection and Hidden Divisions, with artist and collector Betty Ford-Smith in attendance. Complimentary refreshments. Admission and parking is free.

Sebring, Fla. artist and educator Betty Ford-Smith has collected traditional art from Africa for decades. With trips to Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, and through contact with collectors in Europe and North America, Betty Ford-Smith developed a substantial collection of objects made on the continent of Africa. A mix of objects from cultural groups in West and Central Africa, Living With the Spirits of Tradition is a small glimpse of her collection, one of Central Florida’s major private collections of art.

Tampa artist Andrés Ramírez works as an aerial photographer, and his job requires him to regularly be flown to various construction sites throughout Florida. Hidden Divisions features a collection of photographs that were taken from a propeller plane by Ramírez during his down time at that day job. Photographed from 1000 feet in the air, Ramírez allows us to see the surprising structure and breathtaking scale of rural and suburban Florida that is not apparent from the ground. Featuring a birds-eye view of sugar cane fires, workers in strawberry fields, surfers, and boaters, Ramírez photographs these and other subjects familiar to Floridians from an unfamiliar perspective to reexamine issues surrounding agriculture, environmentalism, immigration, and housing.