“My association with the Art Center began when Dee Dewberry hired me to teach children’s classes in the summer of 1982. As a young Pinellas County art teacher, summer employment was a scramble of construction jobs and mowing lawns. For the next eighteen years the gap was filled. The job was a blessing and an introduction to a supportive and vibrant arts community in my new home town. My involvement extended beyond teaching to taking classes, exhibiting in the gallery and eventually becoming a member of the Board of Directors from 1993 -1997. Now in a beautiful new facility, the Morean’s commitment to education expanded to a larger summer art camp and exhibitions from Pinellas County school’s art students. The Morean also began a partnership with the arts magnet at Gibbs High School where I taught. In 2007 they began providing exhibition space for annual senior projects, an alumni show and two exhibitions for the visual arts faculty. Without community based art centers like the Morean, life as an artist, teacher and student would not be the rich experience it is in St. Petersburg.”