Naples Art Association founder turns 100
Grace Lake, one of three founders of the Naples Art Association in 1954, celebrated her 100th birthday on March 11. Lake lives in St. Petersburg and still paints daily.
In honor of her birthday, the Naples Art Association will exhibit four of her paintings in the administration office and library of The von Liebig Art Center through March 17. The art center at 585 Park St. is open daily with free admission.
The four paintings were inspired by Grace and her husband George's annual summer sailing trips from Naples to the Bahamas. Three of the paintings were painted on location in the Bahamas, while the fourth painting, "The Sailboat Mary Harrison: Naples City Docks," is of the sailboat the Lakes owned and used on their summer getaways. In the painting the sailboat is moored peacefully at the Naples City Docks.
Lake, George Rogers and Elsie Upham spearheaded the formation of the Naples Art Association. A Petition for Charter was filed on June 15, 1954 with 30 signatures. Lake served as the group's first president.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lake moved to Naples with her husband George after World War II ended. A pilot during the war, George Lake operated a flight service from the Naples Municipal Airport. In 1949, Lake opened Grace Lake's Florist, which she owned and operated until 1974. Lake attended classes at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and studied at the Norton Gallery in West Palm Beach. She has exhibited her work in Naples and in Athol, Mass.. Today, she concentrates on landscape painting with occasional work in portraiture.
In 1956, NAA members began to meet and exhibit work regularly as part of an outdoor painting group. Since art instruction was not available to Collier County public school students in 1957, NAA members volunteered their expertise until the public school's art program was established.
In 1971, the first annual Sponsors Show was organized to raise funds to provide art scholarships to Collier County high school students to further their art studies at the college level. NAA continues to support this scholarship exhibition program, currently awarding $6,000 annually to local students. In 1979, the NAA began its first education program and until June 1998, offered adult classes, lectures and workshops in the historic Naples Depot.
The NAA organized its first outdoor show in 1957, with 37 exhibiting members. This evolved into the present Art in the Park series. In 1980, NAA organized its first annual Spring Art Show in Cambier Park, that later became known as the Naples National Art Festival, a two-day fundraising event attracting high caliber exhibiting artists nationally and abroad. Proceeds benefit The von Liebig Art Center's programs. In 1968, the NAA began the search for a permanent location to build an art facility which 24 years later was realized.
In 1992, the Naples City Council voted to enter into a lease agreement with the NAA, providing an 8,000-square foot footprint of public park land in Cambier Park on which to build a community arts center. After a successful capital campaign, the $3.5 million was raised with major funding provided by the state and a lead private gift from Naples season resident, Suzanne and the late William J. von Liebig, noted cultural and medical research philanthropists.
